N.W.T. MLA wary of Pine Point mine proposal

Tamerlane Ventures' planto revive the N.W.T.'s defunct Pine Point zinc-lead mine should be viewed with skepticism, Thebacha MLA Michael Miltenberger says.

Miltenberger points out that Tamerlane is chairedby Margaret Kent, formerly known as Peggy Witte,who headed Royal Oak Mines when it abandonedYellowknife's Giant Mine, leaving taxpayers to pay for the cleanup.

The company says it wants to extract a bulk ore sample for testing as part of its feasibility study of the Pine Point mine.

Miltenberger suspects the company simply wants to remove the highest grade ore from the old mine site near the south shore of Great Slave Lake, between Fort Resolution and Hay River, and not follow through with putting the mine into production.

"Is it an issue of they want to test it and see if they want to mine the rest, or are they going to high grade?" he asked in a recentCBC News interview.

Hay River MLA Jane Groenewegen, however,is optimistic about the project.

Concerns stemming from thecleanup at the Giant Mine are answered by modernenvironmental reviews, whichensure mining is done in an environmentally sensitive manner, she says, also noting the benefits a mine could bring to the area.

"We're looking forward to what they might be able to do and some of the spinoffs and benefits this might create, not only for Hay River but for the whole South Slave," she said.

Tamerlane project manager David Swisher says there areenvironmental and economic reasons for choosing the highest grade deposit to bulk sample.

"One of the reasons we chose this particular deposit is that it's not near any streams or rivers and we're at least 14 kilometres from the lake," he said.

The profits from the bulk sample will be used to buy a mill to process other deposits on the site, he said.