The Wek’èezhìi Land and Water Board is about to hold its first public hearing in Whatì, considering a new water licence for the nearby proposed Nico mine.
Fortune Minerals has spent decades trying to open a cobalt, gold, bismuth and copper mine at a site about 50 kilometres northeast of the Tłı̨chǫ community.
The mine site already has what is known as a type A water licence, but it’s expiring and a new one is needed.
The hearing is expected to run from 8:30am to 5pm on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. It’s open to the public and will be live streamed via the Cabin Radio website. (Here’s the agenda.)
Fortune Minerals will make a presentation about its planned mine. The NWT government, Tłı̨chǫ Government, Yellowknives Dene First Nation, North Slave Métis Alliance and federal government are also due to present. All of the parties can question the others. Members of the public can ask questions, too.
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“A review took place. A technical session was hosted. The public hearing is the next big step where all parties and members of the public get an opportunity to ask questions,” said Ryan Fequet, the Wek’èezhìi Land and Water Board’s executive director.
Fequet said the “main components of the mine are really the same” in the new application, compared to the existing licence, but there are some changes proposed.
Those include the use of additional water to support mine operations and eventually flood an open pit, and the construction of wetlands to treat runoff from the site.
“Having wetlands that actually work at -50C isn’t something that there’s a lot of experience and literature on,” said Fequet.
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“Fortune’s requirements in their water licence have a series of pilot demonstrations and full scale testing, both in the lab and on site, to make sure these wetlands are actually going to be an effective treatment method in the long term. That’s a unique aspect of the project.”
The project is near the Marian River. On Tłı̨chǫ land, projects like these are generally required to ensure the quantity, quality and flow of waters remain substantially unaltered.
“It is up to the Tłı̨chǫ Government to decide what that means and us as regulators to make sure that is met through the requirements in the water licence,” Fequet said.
The Tłı̨chǫ Government is expected to make about a dozen recommendations with a focus on responsible mining and learning from past contamination, like that at the former Rayrock uranium mine.
The North Slave Métis Alliance has accused Fortune of failing to adequately discuss the project with NSMA, an argument it is expected to raise at this week’s hearing.
The Yellowknives Dene First Nation has some similar concerns and also wants improvements to Nico’s environmental monitoring and closure plans.
Nico’s bismuth in demand?
A separate process is ongoing for the regulatory permits necessary to construct an all-season road from Whatì to the Nico mine, considered a prerequisite before it can open.
Fortune Minerals has recently benefited from more than $20 million in combined territorial, United States and Canadian funding for its proposed mine, given the critical minerals involved.
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Earlier this year, the company said an ongoing trade war between the United States and China had transformed the project, turning bismuth from the least important of the four commodities involved into the main event.
“This is actually turning into a bismuth project with some gold and some other stuff [because] that’s where the market is,” Rick Schryer, Fortune’s vice president of regulatory and environmental affairs, said at the time.
China controls roughly 80 percent of the world’s current bismuth supply. Fortune says the Nico deposit contains around 12 percent of all known global reserves of the metal, which has growing applications in electric vehicle magnets, semiconductors, and soldering for AI data centres.
Whatì has only been connected to the rest of Canada by an all-season road since late 2021, increasing the likelihood that the Nico mine might one day open.
“The board holds a lot of hearings, but this will be the first hearing held in the community of Whatì,” said Fequet.
“Public hearings and community sessions are typically hosted in the communities most closely or directly potentially impacted by a project. This is the first time we’re going to Whatì to do this.
“There is transportation from Behchokǫ̀ to Whatì daily for folks and it will be live streamed for anybody who can’t attend in person but would like to follow along or submit questions to ask on the record.”
A new water licence does not guarantee the mine will be built – Fortune still has to find the money and market conditions that will allow a financially viable mine to open.
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But the licence sets the stage for the mine to open by setting out the basic regulatory conditions under which it would operate.
After the public hearing, Fortune and other parties have time to submit any extra information requested during the hearing, make more comments and submit closing arguments.
The board then makes a decision. If the board decides to issue a new licence, ministerial approval is the final step.
