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Raglan at 20

March 28, 2016

The Raglan mine is nearing its 20th birthday. Now part of the Glencore Group, the mine employs more than 950 people. It is located at the extreme limit of Northern Quebec, where it operates one of the richest nickel base-metal mines in the world.

The project, however, was officially brought into production in December 1997, after obtaining the necessary authorizations from the government authorities and the approval of the Inuit communities concerned. In February 1995 Falconbridge Ltd. signed an Impact and Benefits Agreement (IBA) called the “Raglan Agreement (1995)” with the local Inuit community. Originally the complex was created with the participation of the Inuit owned Makivik Corporation, with the hopes of attracting employment for local residents. Falconbridge was taken over by Xstrata and Xstrata by Glencore.

The life span of the mine is still estimated at approximately twenty years. More than $600 million was invested initially to start the construction and launch the project . Over the years, we have also made many investments to build new infrastructure, improve current facilities (ex. seaport) and develop new projects.

Commentary

The Raglan mine has been an enormous benefit to the Inuit, Quebec and Canada. It took great foresight and courage by Falconbridge to hammer out one of the very first Impact Benefit Agreements (IBAs) and to make the investment in this mine. The Raglan mine IBA is public and was very much a precursor to the sharing of developer/aboriginal development arrangements in northern Canada.

Now days IBAs are secret, even after agreements have been reach between the parties.

Sources