Attawapiskat First Nation's…

Attawapiskat First Nation's comments regarding De Beers' Victor Diamond Mine Revised Closure Plan Amendment #4 - ERO number: 019-2120, Ministry reference: V07 Victor Mine

De Beers Canada Incorporated (DBC) has submitted a Mine Closure Plan Amendment for filing by the Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines (ENDM) as required under the Mining Act. The location of the site is within Attawapiskat First Nation territory. The amendment proposes rehabilitation measures to be implemented during closure of De Beers Canada Incorporated's Victor Mine site. The Victor Mine ceased operations in 2019. On December 16, 2019 De Beers informed Attawapiskat First Nation (AttFN) that the focus in 2020 was shifting from progressive reclamation rehabilitation to closure of the facility.

The following are the major components of this Closure Plan Amendment as proposed by De Beers Canada Incorporated.
• waste rock dump bypass road connecting the waste rock dump to the high-grade stockpile near the primary crusher.
• greenhouse, Hydroponic System and Seed Facility.
• in Pit Sump / Settling Pond.
• extension of Run of Mine Stockpile.
• northec laydown pad and infrastructure.
• new fish pond.
• waste burn pit new location.

AttFN retained Shared Value Solutions Ltd. (SVS) in February 2019 to provide professional services related to the review of the Victor Diamond Mine (VDM) Closure Plan and ongoing technical support to the AttFN Environmental Management Committee (EMC) as the VDM proceeds through closure.
In May of 2019, SVS completed a third-party peer review of DBC’s May 2018 Victor Mine Closure Plan Amendment #4 and October 2018 Human Health Risk Assessment, and provided AttFN with a draft report of compiled issues, recommendations, and conclusions. SVS presented the results of this review to AttFN Council and community members in June of 2019, and after receiving edits and comments back from AttFN, SVS provided a final report of compiled issues and recommendations to AttFN in August 2019. AttFN subsequently shared this final report with DBC. DBC indicated that the comments and recommendations that AttFN tabled for Closure Plan Amendment #4 would be addressed in Closure Plan Amendment #5, which would be released in late 2020.

On April 14, 2019 DBC provided AttFN with a comment tracking table outlining their responses to the issues, comments, recommendations and conclusions raised by AttFN via the SVS third-party review of the 2018 Victor Mine Closure Plan Amendment #4 and Human Health Risk Assessment reports. SVS provided an initial assessment of the adequacy of DBC’s responses on June 10, 2020 (refer to attached PDF file). To date, AttFN has received no further correspondence from DBC regarding dispositioning AttFN’s comments on Closure Plan Amendment #4, and AttFN is still of the understanding that the outstanding issues it has tabled will be addressed in Closure Plan Amendment #5.

Overall, DBC’s responses were imprecise and non-committal with regards to requests and recommendations for the meaningful engagement and involvement of AttFN in decision-making, training and monitoring, and inclusion of traditional knowledge, including adequate capacity for such meaningful engagement. DBC’s responses generally lack a willingness to provide detail, and often fail to respond directly and meaningfully to questions and recommendations. In many cases, DBC’s responses refer AttFN to review other lengthy documents rather than explaining how DBC will address the issue AttFN has raised.

Given the limited budget available for reviewing DBC’s responses, it is unreasonable for DBC to expect AttFN to take hours and hours to conduct a full review of supplemental reports cited in responses, and then evaluate whether concerns have been sufficiently addressed. This is especially true when considering the track record of inconsistencies and errors that AttFN has identified in other DBC reports during the ongoing review of EMC related technical reports and documents. Additionally, AttFN has been provided with no indication of whether our comments and concerns have been addressed within the revised Closure Plan Amendment #4 that is currently open for comment, and to date we have not received a response from DBC regarding our inquiry as to what is different in this revised version to aid in our review of the document. Therefore, the attached memo reiterates our comments that were submitted to DBC on the original Closure Plan Amendment #4, alongside DBC’s responses and AttFN’s assessment of response adequacy. A summary of key outstanding issues related to both Closure Plan Amendment #4 and the associated Human Health and Ecological Risk Assessment is provided at the end of this document.

In addition to the issues noted in the attached, AttFN notes that the VDM Closure Plan is dependent on a new proposed and currently unapproved demolition landfill. This additional landfill was not considered in the original Environmental Assessment for the mine. AttFN is opposed to this additional landfill. DBC is reducing or eliminating proper offsite disposal of mining project waste by substituting offsite disposal with onsite disposal of a significant unplanned quantity of waste in AttFN’s territory, in contradiction to the approved Environmental Assessment. AttFN will not suffer the further impacts of this new landfill waste on top of the existing impacts of the VDM.