Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today I made a Member's statement on Avalon rare earth resources. I have questions for the Minister of ITI. I would like to ask the Minister if the Minister has been engaged in any discussion with the mining company that is hoping to continue or start operations at Thor Lake? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When we were down at the mineral roundup in Vancouver last week, I had a chance to have a discussion with the CEO, Mr. Bubar, and he actually introduced me to their new potential partner, a private Australian company, Cheetah Resources, and I had a brief discussion with them of their exciting new project that they want to take on at Nechalacho.
Does the Minister know if that company has any discussions or any engagements at all with the Aboriginal groups, Indigenous groups in the area, specifically I think maybe Lutselk'e, YK Dene, and Fort Resolution?
I would have to check into that, but my suspicion, talking to Mr. Bubar and his new partner, is Avalon would still be the lead on this project through engagement and the permitting process and the work that would have to be completed, and I would suspect that their new concept of a new mini, micro-mine concept, that they will have to engage our Indigenous partners and have discussions with them, as well, and update them.
Has the Minister at any point during his discussions gotten into what might make that project viable and what might get that project started with the company?
What I can tell the Member and the Assembly is, in my discussion with them, they are looking at a very small-scale development of a -- I know the acronyms for the elements are Nd- and Pr-rich concentrate. They want to do a low-cost mining operation for crushing, an ore-sorting operation, to have a look at specifically their T-zone and the resource that is there.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the Minister if during his discussion there was any feel for whether or not they will go beyond this small-scale mining operation that they are planning now? They must be doing it because of the current situation with rare earths right across the globe. I am wondering if the Minister had any indication whether or not the company wants to move beyond a small-scale mining operation?
From the conversation I had with their financial partner there from Australia, his approach he says has been always a small-scale approach to see what the real potential is there without a whole large investment. This was over a $1 billion investment to actually get Avalon up and going, their original pre-feasibility study, what they wanted to do. This is a new approach, and the department wants to follow this closely. Any type of economic opportunities that we can bring to the Northwest Territories for the residents and our Indigenous governments is a welcome opportunity, and we will work very closely with Avalon and their new partner to try to move this small-scale project forward and have collaboration and meaningful input from everybody in the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
