CAT LAKE – A Vancouver-based gold miner has entered into a process agreement with Cat Lake and Lac Seul First Nations for a community-based impact assessment.
The process agreement provides the framework for First Mining Gold and the First Nations to proceed with “procedural clarity and meaningful participation in the review of the Springpole Gold Project,” according to a news release from First Mining.
First Mining touts its project at Springpole Lake as “one of the largest undeveloped gold projects in Ontario.”
The company proposes open-pit mining, but Cat Lake First Nation is concerned about the impact that would have on a lake with lake trout and a surrounding area that has sacred value as a home to ancient pictographs and burial grounds.
Cat Lake earlier this year won a court injunction against First Mining building an access road to the Springpole site, which is in Cat Lake’s traditional territory.
The injunction is still in effect, Cat Lake Chief Russell Wesley said Thursday.
(UPDATE: First Mining says its road permits have expired and new permit applications have been filed.)
Furthermore, Wesley told Newswatch, his First Nation remains opposed to open-pit mining at Springpole Lake.
The process agreement “is just an opportunity for communities to be consulted,” Wesley said.
Lac Seul is a party to the agreement because the two First Nations have overlapping territories, he explained.
In First Mining’s news release, CEO Dan Wilton said the company is “pleased to support this leading-edge work on community-based Indigenous engagement.”
The process agreement “is for funding the crucial capacity-building measures and implementing a community-based Anishinaabe-led impact assessment” and “underscores the importance of procedural clarity and meaningful participation in the review process,” said a media statement issued by Cat Lake.
