A Vancouver-based junior exploration company with coal interests in the Mackenzie Valley has high hopes for two areas in the High Arctic, but environmentalists have expressed concern about the potential impact.
West Hawk Development Corporation acquired exploration licenses for two areas in northern Nunavut, about 400 kilometres north of Resolute.
One area is on the east side of Eureka Sound on Ellesmere Island while the other is on the west side of the sound on Axel Heidelberg Island.
A report commissioned by West Hawk estimates the areas contain about three billion tonnes of coal, said president and chief executive officer William Mark Hart.
Although coal has a bad reputation as a dirty source of energy, Hart said new technology makes its exploitation more attractive.
"Our main goal was to acquire the feedstock [coal], acquire this clean technology, which gives us the ability to meet Kyoto requirements, and additionally meet the efficiency requirements for low cost, and then lock up contracts that would give us the ability to project finance this work," Hart told CBC News.
Coal mining questioned by environmentalists
But environmentalists say clean coal technology is still in the early stages.
"It's difficult for me to see how coal mining on a large scale would be economic," said Stephen Hazell, executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada.
"I would be very concerned about the ecological impacts associated with the mining and the burning of that coal."
Before the Nunavut coal projects go any further, Hazell would like to see a debate about whether coal should even be mined in the High Arctic at all.
Source : ca.news.yahoo.com
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