WHAT A TRIP
By David Perri, an editor with The Northern Miner, a sister publication to Canadian Mining Journal.
On Sept. 19, 2014, the MV Nunavik embarked on a historic 29-day journey from Deception Bay in Quebec’s far
north to deliver nickel concentrate to Bayuquan in China’s Liaoning province.
According to the Montreal-based shipping firm of Fednav, which owns the 31,700-tonne vessel, reaching China
via the Northwest Passage as compared to using the Panama Canal, offered a 40 per cent reduction in time
and distance, with time being a major factor.
“September and the beginning of October is the only time that a conventional vessel can use the Northwest
Passage,” says Marc Gagnon, Fednav’s Director of Government Affairs and Regulatory Compliance.
Even during this shipping window, he says, the lack of coast guards and the difficulty of navigating the passage
make it extra risky. In Gagnon’s estimation, the arctic route won’t see more traffic in the short or even medium
term.
“This won’t happen every year. We don’t expect it to happen often.”
Gagnon said it was an extraordinary coincidence that arctic cargo was sold to China at the right time of year.
He added that the past winter’s severity had made the waters especially difficult, which meant there would be
more icebergs.
Because of the extreme conditions, “We didn’t use a regular ship to go through the Northwest Passage this
year; it would be too dangerous. With the icebreaker MV Nunavik, however, we were going to be okay,” said
Gagnon.
As a “Polar Class 4” icebreaker, the MV Nunavik is capable of breaking through thick sea ice as it does
routinely as part of it regular job of keeping Deception Bay clear for navigation year-round, said Gagnon.
It took four days for the ship to travel the 1,700 km Northwest Passage from Lancaster Sound to the Beaufort
Sea. During its voyage, it was aided from shore by Fednav’s ice-navigation support team, as well as cuttingedge technology on-board, including real-time satellite imagery.
From a regulatory standpoint, Gagnon says traversing the Northwest Passage is relatively painless and
inexpensive. There are no fees and few restrictions, but an Arctic Pollution Prevention Certificate was required
from Transport Canada before embarking.
This journey is only the second commercial cargo ship to travel through the entire Northwest Passage; the first
was an escorted voyage last year, but Gagnon estimates there have been 200 non-commercial trips through
the route, completed by coast guard icebreakers and research vessels.
Fednav operates 75 ships worldwide, three of which are employed full-time in the Arctic, moving 2 million
tonnes of material per year from four mines: Vale’s Voisey’s Bay nickel-cobalt-copper mine in northern
Labrador; Teck Resources’ Red Dog zinc mine in northwest Alaska; Glencore’s Raglan nickel-copper mine in
Quebec’s Ungava region; and Jilin Jien Nickel Industry’s Nunavik nickel-copper mine, also in Ungava, which
yielded the nickel that went through the Northwest Passage.
China-based Jilin Jien acquired 75 per cent of the Nunavik project via the hostile takeover of Canadian
Royalties in 2009. It bought the remaining 25 per cent by snapping up Goldbrook Ventures with a friendly offer
in 2012.
The Shanghai-listed firm has invested $1 billion to develop the Nunavik mine and appointed Toronto-based
Forbes & Manhattan to manage the operation through to production, according to its Canadian subsidiary’s last
press release in November 2013. That same press release announced the company’s first copper-concentrate
shipment from the mine.
Fednav says the miner expects to produce 20,000 tonnes per year of nickel and copper in concentrate.