For more than 2,000 years, Innu hunters have followed the caribou in the barrenlands of Quebec and Labrador. To the Innu, this region, which they call Nitassinan, is home. This harshly beautiful land is one of the last, large, roadless areas on Earth. Few tourists will ever see its ancient mountains and rugged river valleys, where islands of black spruce and balsam fir forest shelter, or its open barrens with their lichen woodlands, grasses, and dwarf shrubs interspersed with bogs and rock outcrops.

The barrens are home to the caribou, whose vast ranges can extend over a thousand kilometers. Here, the Innu practice their traditional way of life, spending much of the year "in the country", fishing, hunting, and living off the land. Their culture and language are related to those of the Cree, but are distinctly different from that of the Inuit people, with whom they have come to share Nitassinan in recent centuries. Today, about 14,000 Innu are scattered throughout the Quebec and Labrador region, 2,000 of them along the coast of Labrador.

Recently, this culture, so closely tied to the land and the caribou, has come into conflict with several major development proposals. The largest of these is the plan to develop a massive mining operation near Voisey's Bay, northwest of Davis Inlet. The Voisey's Bay deposit, a vast sulphide ore body containing rich nickel, copper, and cobalt resources, is thought to be the largest nickel deposit in the world. The discovery is particularly significant because the most productive ores are located close to the land surface, and can be mined inexpensively using open-pit techniques. Several deeper deposits offer the opportunity for continued mineral development over at least 20 years and perhaps several decades. (Only a mine and ore concentration facility are proposed for the Voisey's Bay site. A smelter for the ore will be built on the Island of Newfoundland, near St. John's).

To many in Newfoundland and Labrador, the Voisey's Bay discovery is the long-awaited answer to a prayer for jobs and wealth. Years of depressed economic conditions and the collapse of the Atlantic cod fishery in the early 1990s, have made unemployment rates in that province among the highest in Canada. If it goes ahead, the mine development, and its associated smelter and support communities, will bring thousands of jobs to one of Canada's most impoverished regions.

In 1994, Archean, a small exploration company working for Diamond Fields Resources, located a nickel, copper and cobalt ore body near Voisey's Bay, on the coast of Labrador. Originally, Diamond Fields estimated the extent of the ore body at 31 million tonnes, and a value of up to $30 billion Canadian. As exploration proceeds, it has become apparent that the ore body is larger than first thought. Current estimates suggest that more than 150 million tonnes of ore, valued at more than $50 billion Canadian dollars, may lie under the Labrador barrenlands.

Immediately following the discovery, thousands of prospectors descended on the region, staking more than a quarter of a million claims over an area almost half the size of Labrador - a modern-day "gold rush", in the words of one observer.

For the Innu, the Voisey's Bay discovery is only the most recent attack on their traditional lifestyle. In the 1970s, a hydroelectric development at Churchill Falls, Labrador, flooded thousands of hectares of Innu land, destroying traditional hunting and burial grounds. Other hydroelectric megaprojects on the Churchill and St. Marguerite rivers are now in the planning process. In the 1980s and early 1990s, the Innu fought against the introduction of low-level military flight training over caribou and waterfowl habitat. And as the potential for mineral development in coastal Labrador becomes apparent, proposals are being made to upgrade the Trans-Labrador Highway and build a snowmobile trail which would cut through the heart of important Innu hunting territory and sensitive caribou range.

Central to the debate about how Labrador should be developed is the problem of deciding who owns the land. The Innu have never ceded their rights to the land through any previous treaty or negotiation process and believe that they still hold ownership of Nitassinan. The government holds a different view. It took many years for the Innu and the provincial government to agree on an agenda for land-claims negotiations - and then came the prospectors. So while land claim issues remain unresolved, aggressive mineral exploration is well underway, with all of its associated infrastructure: roads, airstrips, docks, housing facilities, and disposal of garbage and sewage. It costs only $5 for prospectors to register a claim (and a $240 deposit which is forfeited if the land is not explored within a year). Exploration firms frequently stake claims on many plots - hence the huge area of Labrador now "claimed" by the mining companies. The Innu wonder how the government can justify making it so easy for others to claim ownership of Innu land. But in the eyes of the government, mineral development in Labrador is a necessity if the province is to break its historical ties to the fishing industry and build a stronger economic foundation.

Since the original discovery was made, Voisey's Bay Nickel Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Inco Ltd., has extended the original Diamond Fields claim area by purchasing the claims of other smaller companies. To support their own exploration efforts, Voisey's Bay Nickel has built two semi-permanent exploration camps (currently housing several hundred workers), a float plane dock, and a large helicopter hangar and servicing facility. Recently, they produced a proposal to add a temporary dock, road, and airstrip facilities near the site, and began to clear-cut the proposed road area. But an environmental assessment process of the proposed mine and mill is currently underway, and in September, 1997, the courts ruled that plans to build the temporary road and airstrip at the site must also be subject to environmental review. In that same month, Inco announced that it will delay the proposed date to begin shipping nickel from the Voisey's Bay nickel project by at least a year. The company had hoped to begin production by late 1999, but the new plans suggest that the earliest possible start date will be in late 2000. Company representatives claim that the delay is related to "unprecedented" information requirements in the environmental assessment process. The Innu and neighbouring Inuit communities, however, believe that the company simply underestimated the time it would take to understand the potential impacts of the project on native peoples and wildlife.

These recent events are, however, worrying to Inco, which is currently contending with low nickel prices on world markets. The price of Inco stock has also been adversely affected by the delays and stringent environmental assessment requirements. At the end of September, 1997, Inco stock prices had dropped by more than a third from a 52-week high value of $51.45.

The Voisey's Bay situation is typical of many complex environmental disputes in that there are both positive and negative consequences of the development, both for the people of the area and for the natural environment. And, like many disputes, the benefits of the project may be realized by one group, while another group bears the costs.

1. Increased Employment Opportunities

There is no question that development of a major nickel mine at Voisey's Bay will bring jobs to Labrador, not only through direct employment in the mine itself, but also in support roles such as pilots, drivers and cooks. Although many skilled workers will be brought to the site from other parts of Newfoundland and the rest of Canada, the Innu Nation and Labrador Inuit Association are attempting to ensure that some proportion of the jobs will be set aside for local workers drawn from Innu and Inuit settlements. These employment opportunities will create new sources of wealth in previously impoverished communities.

2. Improved Access to Health Care and Education

The Voisey's Bay mine will bring thousands of people to an area that now has one of the lowest population densities on earth. Those people will require medical care, supplies, shopping, recreational opportunities, and similar amenities that are largely absent from the area now. Native people from the isolated communities along the Labrador coast will likely benefit directly from improved access to health care and from educational opportunities such as specialized and on-site training programs.

3. Increased Supplies of Nickel, Copper, and Cobalt

Our society uses vast quantities of copper, nickel and cobalt, much of it for beneficial purposes. For example, nickel is widely used in alloys such as stainless steel and other corrosion-resistant alloys. Other major uses include metal plating and coating, and in battery manufacturing. Nickel is also an important material in coinage and in making nickel steel for armour plating. Like nickel, copper has many beneficial uses, particularly in the electrical industry (one of the largest users of this metal), in the manufacturing of wire, and in coinage. Copper compounds are used as agricultural pesticides and in water purification. Uses of cobalt include alloys with iron, nickel and other metals to make specialty materials such as magnet steels and stainless steel, and in metal plating (because of its hardness and resistance to oxidation). Cobalt-60, an artificial isotope, is an important gamma-ray source, and is extensively used as a tracer and a radiotherapeutic agent. Development of the Voisey's Bay mine and mill will increase world supplies of these important metals.

4. An Opportunity to Demonstrate State-of-the-Art Mining and Waste Disposal

Given that metals are an inescapable part of our life and society, mining is a necessary activity. Recent advances in mining and waste management technologies vastly reduce the impacts of older methods. Emerging pollution-control techniques used in other industries may also have potential for use in the treatment of mining and milling wastes. The enormous mineral resources in the Voisey's Bay ore body will generate sufficient revenues to justify using the very best of these new methods. It may even be possible for Inco to develop and implement new technologies especially designed to protect the cold-climate, fragile ecosystem of coastal Labrador.

1. Creation of Obstacles to Wildlife Migration

Caribou are among the few species on earth, and among the last in North America, to migrate in large herds over hundreds of kilometers. Their migration patterns are repeated and predictable, having developed around land features such as mountains and rivers and special places such as calving grounds. Herd behaviour has evolved to allow the animals to find food and also to provide protection from predators for females and their vulnerable young. Low-level military flying has already disrupted caribou herd behaviour by introducing shrieking noise impacts over caribou habitat, causing flight of animals into marginal, less protected, habitat. The Voisey's Bay project will create physical barriers to migration, for instance through the construction of transmission lines, roads and pipelines, and will generate new and significant sources of noise from truck, air, and marine traffic and from mine equipment. Experience in other systems has shown that caribou cows with calves tend to avoid noisy areas and structures such as roads and pipelines. In doing so, they may be cut off from some of the best habitat for food and growth. The result of infrastructure development could therefore be damage to caribou herd health and/or productivity.

2. Alteration of Waterfowl Habitat

The "Gooselands" are located on a rich estuarine delta at the head of Voisey's Bay. They are important staging grounds for waterfowl migration. Native people hunt these birds, primarily geese, as part of their traditional diet. For the Innu, hunting is much more than a simple economic activity - it also has a strong spiritual dimension. Recent proposals made by Voisey's Bay Nickel include plans to build tailings disposal structures and an airstrip less than 10 kilometers from the Gooselands. A wide variety of waterfowl species are found in this region, including Canada Geese, dabbling ducks such as Black Duck and Green-winged Teal (which use peatlands for breeding, staging and moulting), and shorebirds such as the Dowitcher, Phalaropes, and Solitary Sandpiper. Mating pairs of the endangered Harlequin Duck have been observed within a few kilometers of the project site. Development of mine/mill infrastructure near the Gooselands clearly has the potential to alter waterfowl habitat and disrupt migratory behaviour.

3. Social Impacts of Economic Development

Although some Innu people see benefit in the jobs that the Voisey's Bay mine would bring, others are less enthusiastic about this prospect. Innu culture is not based on a wage economy, but rather on a pattern of extended seasonal migration into the back country. This pattern is not usually consistent with full-time employment, which may restrict vacation time to a week or two at a time. Innu people wishing to live for several months in the country may therefore be unable to get or keep jobs at the mine site.

Other social concerns centre on the problem of a sudden influx of money into the community. Some elders fear that young people will use the money to buy consumer goods such as television sets and cars that are not a part of traditional households. Others are concerned that levels of alcoholism and other substance abuse may increase if there is more cash in the community and few places to spend it. Finally, the mine will likely employ at least 2,000 people, but only a small proportion of those would be women. Local women have raised concerns about their own and their daughters' personal security, for instance protection against rape, in such a situation.

4. Loss of Wetland and Coastal Ecosystems

Although it appears to be a rugged landscape, the Voisey's Bay ecosystem is in fact quite fragile. Its fast-flowing, pristine streams contain valuable spawning habitat for a variety of fish and other aquatic species. Within the deep valleys, black spruce forests provide a habitat for resident terrestrial species such as spruce grouse and porcupine. At higher elevations, the thin soils and rock outcrops support a diverse community of lichens, wetland species, and low-growing cold-tolerant plants. As one of the last remaining roadless wildernesses on earth, the northern Labrador ecosystem is both rare and easily damaged. Proposed mining and milling activities could alter natural drainage patterns through extensive groundwater extractions, draining and filling of low-lying areas, and excavation of soil for a variety of purposes. These actions have the potential to create significant impacts on the species composition and physical integrity of the barrenlands ecosystem, particularly bog areas. Along the coast, deep- water ship traffic and dock construction and operation may affect the unique intertidal and marine ecosystem there.

5. Enhanced Runoff and Sediment Load

In the natural landscape of the barrens, falling rain is slowed and trapped by the uneven soil surface, eventually infiltrating into the subsurface layer. Construction of the Voisey's Bay mine and its roads, buildings, airstrips, and other structures will disturb large areas of the land surface. In some areas, the natural surface will be replaced with artificial paving, whether impervious (like asphalt or roofs) or pervious (like a gravel road). These changes may result in faster movement of stormwater runoff over the land surface, with the result that runoff to lakes and streams will be faster, warmer (having picked up heat from road and roof surfaces), and higher in sediment content than would have been the case in the natural environment. Sediment accumulation in rivers is important because of its potential to clog fish gills and because it can "blanket" the river sediments, making the habitat unsuitable for the spawning of some species of fish.

6. Adverse Impacts on Aquatic Life

Sulphide ore mining involves blasting, digging and crushing of rock. One of the most well documented impacts of mining and mine waste disposal occurs when rock particles - some very small - come into contact with rainwater, surface water, or groundwater. When this happens, various chemical reactions can occur. Among these is acid mine drainage, which results when iron sulphides react with the oxygen in water to create acidic conditions. Acid mine drainage is known to have adverse consequences for downstream organisms. Other reactions can result in the transfer of metal compounds from the rock to the water, causing an increase in the concentrations of metals such as copper, nickel, zinc, mercury, and chromium, depending on the nature of the ore. Of these, copper is known to be particularly toxic to aquatic organisms, even at relatively low levels, and can cause death or reduced reproductive success in fish or their prey species.

Because of outstanding native land-claims issues, the proposal to develop a copper-nickel-cobalt mine at Voisey's Bay is subject to environmental assessment under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and the Newfoundland Environmental Assessment Act. Because of outstanding land claims issues, both Canada and Newfoundland invited the Innu Nation and Labrador Inuit Association to join them in drafting a harmonized environmental assessment process for the project. These negotiations resulted in a Memorandum of Understanding, which established an Environmental Assessment Panel and the terms for the review. Construction and operation activities will also be subject to the provisions of Canada's Federal Fisheries Act, which is intended to protect fish and their habitat from polluting activities, and the provisions of federal and provincial environmental protection legislation. The Voisey's Bay mine and associated facilities would also require specific provincial approvals for air, water, and solid waste emissions.

Page 12 discusses the problem of loss of biodiversity, especially through habitat alteration. The glossy fold-out page following page 42 describes cold-climate ecosystems, freshwater swamps and bogs, estuaries, and intertidal zones, and coastal ocean environments. Page 43 talks about physical barriers to species, which may be important in terms of caribou migration in this case. Page 86 talks about predator-prey relationships, which could be important in the event of toxicity to fish prey (e.g. aquatic invertebrates) or if caribou food species are adversely affected by drainage of boggy or low-lying areas. Page 214 describes soil-water relationships and the process of infiltration. Pages 220-223 describe the process of soil erosion and desertification, which could occur in localized areas in response to construction or operational activities at Voisey's Bay. Page 228 talks about the problem of sedimentation and sediment accumulation in lakes and streams. Most of Chapter 11, on water, the water cycle, and water management, is relevant to this case. It talks about water extractions, water purification, sewage treatment and wastewater treatment, and stormwater controls. Chapter 13, on sewage pollution and the nutrient cycle, is relevant to the problem of sewage disposal in a remote location, and the potential for localized impacts on receiving waters. Page 348 describes the problem of pollution with heavy metals, and the types of impacts they can cause on organisms. Pages 365-367 describe the philosophy of pollution avoidance - better product or materials management to reduce wastage and emissions to the environment. Page 432 describes relationships between economic development and the environment, noting the importance of public policy as a means to protect against environmental degradation. Chapter 18, on wild species, contains important information about the preservation of endangered species and the importance of biodiversity. Chapter 19 discusses ecosystems as resources and patterns of use of natural ecosystems. It also discusses the differences between resource conservation and resource preservation. Page 612 talks about the loss of landscapes, particularly the loss of unbroken areas which may be necessary for a species to maintain viable populations.

Innu Nation

This is the Innu Nation home page, containing a variety of useful articles and links to other sites of interest to the Innu, mining and mining impacts, and low-level military flying.

Labrador Inuit Association

This is the home page for the Labrador Inuit Association, the other main aboriginal culture in Labrador. This site contains a number of useful links to sites of interest to the Voisey's Bay mine/mill project and its impact on the Inuit.

General Mining Industry

This very useful and comprehensive site is a general mining industry information source containing links to a wide range of sites including mining technology, mining news, and investment in the mining industry.

Voisey Bay Project

This is the primary site for information about the Voisey's Bay project, including claim maps and other site-specific information.

Newfoundland & Labrador Government

This is the primary homepage for the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, providing links to a variety of departments and services. When last checked, the links to the Department of Natural Resources, which is responsible for oversight of the Voisey's Bay project, were not functioning.

Canadian Federal Natural Resources

This is the page for the Canadian federal natural resources management agency, Natural Resources Canada. It contains links to individual departments and functions relating to mining and other resource development activities.

Canadian Regulations

This URL contains the text of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and its regulations.

Atlantic Canada Environment

This site reports on the "State of the Environment" in Atlantic Canada, including the proposed project area. It encompasses many environmental components including freshwater, marine, and terrestrial environments, plant and animal species, protection of rare and endangered species, and impacts of climate.

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