Partnerships the success story behind Nuvumiut success

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When work began on the Raglan nickel mine near Katinniq on the northern tip of Quebec in the mid-1990s, the nearby Inuit communities of Salluit and Kangirsujuaq wanted to ensure they were participants in, not just observers to, the development and its economic spin-offs.

In 1996, the two communities merged their land holding corporations to form Nuvumiut Developments Inc. and now, six years later, that company is one of the major players providing support services to the mine operation.

The company's success was recognized recently, with Nuvumiut receiving the Partnership Award at the fifth annual Mishtapew gala Nov. 17.

"I guess it was in recognition of the accomplishments we've made over the recent past in negotiating and forming partnership agreements with mining companies, and working in our region," Barbara Papigatuk said when asked why she thought Nuvumiut received the award. Papigatuk is a director of the corporation, as well as the general manager.

The corporation is involved in two partnerships to date. In 1996, Nuvumiut partnered with Les Enterprise Kiewit to form Kiewit Nuvumiut. The partners work together doing open pit mining at the Raglan mine.

"We're just in a new two-year contract, actually, in open pit mining, and what we do there is we create the open pits and remove the nickel from the pits so it can be milled and processed at the site," Papigatuk said.

"Our other partnership activity is in diamond drilling, also at the Raglan mine. We've partnered with a company called Bradley Bros. and we've formed a venture called Bradley Nuvumiut."

Before the partnership with Bradley Bros., drilling experience was limited to surface drilling. Bradley Nuvumiut has now expanded its boundaries, and has won an underground drilling contract as well, she said.

Nuvumiut also runs an employment referral service for the mine, Papigatuk added.

"As soon as the Raglan mine site identifies a need for human resources, for people to go in and do a quick clean up job, or do a quick construction job, then they call my office and I find people from the community and send them over on short-term contracts."

While all this activity is keeping things pretty busy at Nuvumiut Developments, no one is ready to just sit back and enjoy the success-they want to improve on it.

"We're hoping right now to find a partner in development mining and in maintenance," Papigatuk said. "Because the Raglan mine is supposed to be there for the next 20 years, Nuvumiut's long-term objective, of course, would be to be the main contractor on site, and pretty much involved in all activities of the project. It's a big vision, it's a big dream, but we have 20 years."

Part of the reason why Nuvumiut has been so successful in their ventures is because they chose to get involved in the mining industry through partnering with companies that already had the expertise, in a situation where they could slowly increase their investment in the partnership over time.

"What started out as a very minor cash investment in the beginning has allowed us to get our foot in the door. And then over the last six years, we've been able to increase our participation in the partnership, and now we are equal partners in both of the relationships that we have. Which means we own half the fleet, we carry half the responsibility and liability," she said.

"We as Inuit know that we're not just watching, but we're actually participating in the activities on site. We're developing a workforce, developing and designing customized training programs so that people acquire the skills and hands-on training so that they are able to work in jobs within the companies that we've created," Papigatuk explained.