Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. has suspended its application to ship six million tonnes of iron ore a year from its Mary River mine, shown here. Instead, the company is refocusing on an earlier plan to ship its iron ore through a port in Steensby Inlet rather than through its existing port in Milne Inlet.
Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. will lay off 10 per cent of its direct and contract employees as part of a wider plan to focus on building the Steensby Project, a rail line extending 149 kilometres south from its Mary River Mine to Steensby port.
“Baffinland’s Inuit employees will not be affected,” Peter Akman, the company’s head of communications, said in an email.
He said the layoffs are part of a “series of initiatives” that began on Sept. 17 to ensure the company’s “continued viability.”
According to its website, Baffinland employs more than 1,200 people at a number of locations, including the Mary River Mine site and Milne Port.
Akman said the layoffs are being worked out with the International Union of Operating Engineers, which represents workers at the mine, and in accordance with the Inuit Impact and Benefit Agreement.
A representative for the union could not be reached for comment Friday.
Baffinland also recently suspended its application to the Nunavut Impact Review Board for permission to ship six million tonnes of iron ore per year out of Milne Inlet.
The company, which operates the Mary River iron mine on northern Baffin Island, is instead redirecting “all efforts and resources” toward “rapid development” of its Steensby Inlet project, Akman said.
The company’s request to suspend a review of this proposal is included in an Oct. 3 letter addressed to federal Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal, which is posted to the review board’s public registry.
Baffinland was applying to transport six million tonnes of iron ore annually through Milne Inlet until Dec. 31, 2032, or until the company finishes work on a railway and deepsea port south through Steensby Inlet.
The Steensby project would include shipping 18 million tonnes of iron ore per year through Foxe Basin and Hudson Strait via a 149-kilometre railway south from Mary River Mine to Steensby Inlet. That project also includes a deepsea port and other facilities to support processing and transportation of iron ore.
Steensby was part of Baffinland’s original proposal for Mary River, which the federal government approved in 2012.
Two years later, in 2014, the company turned away from its plans for the Arctic railway, saying the project was unaffordable at the time. Baffinland instead applied to ship 12 million tonnes of iron ore annually through Milne Inlet and Eclipse Sound, which are known to be environmentally sensitive areas.
The federal government rejected that plan in 2022 after a heated, years-long public hearing.
The company’s request to suspend the review of what it calls its “sustaining operations proposal 2” is included in the Oct. 3 letter to Vandal.
Baffinland came up with its first sustaining operations proposal in 2023 to keep the mine operating after Vandal rejected its proposal to expand operations and double its shipping output.
The company’s refocus back to Steensby is a “strategic shift” that is “aimed at ensuring long-term operational success,” said Akman, who cited extended periods of low iron ore prices as a reason for the shift.
Global iron ore prices have generally fallen over the year from a high in January of $US144 per tonne. The price on Friday was $US105 per tonne.
Baffinland is scaling back down to what the company had already been approved to ship through Milne Inlet — 4.2 million tonnes of ore annually. Since 2018, the company has been operating under temporary permits that allow it to ship six million tonnes per year.
“This adjustment will allow us to streamline our operations, reduce overhead costs, and focus on the necessary work to advance Steensby,” said Akman.
Baffinland is still working to secure funding for the project. An updated estimated overall cost is still under review, Akman added.
When the company was last raising money for Steensby, in 2012, the project’s estimated cost was $5.7 billion.
“Once funding is in place, a detailed timeline will be shared, including the anticipated start date for construction and the estimated time to reach completion,” Akman said.
Based on: Layoffs, scaled-back shipping as Baffinland refocuses on Steensby railway
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