Mine may threaten Innu, Inuit way of life

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Concerns mounting among the Innu and Inuit peoples of Labrador about mining exploration by a company partly owned and co-chaired by Robert Friedland, who used to head another company that was responsible for the infamous $120-milion Summitville disaster which left a river in Colorado poisoned with cyanide.

Friedland was president, chairman and a major shareholder in Galactic Resources, a now-defunct Vancouver-based company that owned the ill-fated Summitville Gold Mine in southern Colorado. In the summer of 1987, Galactic was fined $27,000 when 85,000 gallons of cyanide-laced water accidentally spilled from the mine's gold extractions system into the Alamosa River.

Acid and metals-laden mine water also entered the river. Later tests showed the river was virtually lifeless. Parts of the river were found to have cyanide levels 25 times normal levels.

"There were no environmental assessments or social impact assessments required at Voisey Bay," said Katie Rich, former chief of Davis Inlet. "But here we are planning to move to Sango (Bay) and the government is asking to do all kinds of environmental assessment. I don't understand that part."

December 1992, Galactic was bankrupt. The clean-up to taxpayers is expected to exceed $120 million.

Friedland record is growing concern to the people of Labrador because of mining exploration being conducted at Voisey Bay by Diamond Fields Resources, the Vancouver-based company Friedland co-chairs and owns a part of. After a year of exploration, Diamond Fields has made a major find of nickel, cobalt and copper. It already has two diamond drills in operation at the site.

Ray Torresam, a spokesman for Diamond Fields, said people shouldn't worry about Friedland.

"Robert Friedland has never been charged," he said. "There's 48 people who have been named as responsible for that disaster and he's not one of them."

The Innu and Inuit are worried because Voisey Bay, which both nations have designated a shared area, is a traditional burial site with great cultural value.

"It is an area of significant Innu land use," explained Larry Innis, an environmental advisor to the Innu Nation, which represents the Sheshatshiu and Mushuau (David Inlet) Innu First Nations of Labrador.

In recent weeks, Innu leaders went so far as to threaten to evict mining prospectors from the area and have helped organize a protest camp at the Diamond Fields exploration site. The Innu say more than 13,000 mining claims have been staked in recent months near Mushuau, which is about 50 km south of Voisey Bay.

Talks were underway in mid-February between the Innu, the Labrador Inuit Association and Diamond Fields over the conditions under which the company would be allowed to proceed with its operation. Operations at the site ceased in early February and had not re-started at press time.

Complicating the issue is the fact that almost a dozen of the 20-30 employees at the mining exploration camp are Inuit. The RCMP has sent about 50 Mounties into the mining camp to protect equipment and uphold the law.