The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
ATAC says denial raises questions about business in territory North of 60 Mining News – December 4, 2020
The Tiger deposit at the northern terminus of ATAC's proposed road hosts 4.53 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 3.19 g/t (464,000 oz) of gold.
ATAC Resources Ltd. Nov. 30 announced that the Yukon government has rejected the company's application to build a 65-kilometer (40 miles), private tote road that would have supported advanced exploration and potential mine development at Rau, the westernmost of three projects that make up ATAC's expansive Rackla gold property in the Yukon.
The proposed all-season road would have branched off the Hanson Lake Road west of Keno City and extended north to Tiger, the most advanced deposit on Rau.
Yukon officials, however, have denied ATAC's application for the road, citing opposition expressed by the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun.
Considering that Na-Cho Nyak Dun and the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board granted conditional approval of the proposed Tiger tote road in the form of a positive joint decision document in 2018, this decision not to issue the permits caught ATAC off guard.
"We are extremely disappointed with, and surprised by, this decision," said President and CEO Graham Downs.
ATAC said it acted in good faith throughout the process and took great care to ensure input from Na-Cho Nyak Dun and the surrounding communities were considered in designing and routing the road.
"This was an application for a private, single-lane, gravel and controlled-access road in an area with existing winter trail access," said Downs. "If this road can't be permitted following a positive environmental and socio-economic assessment decision and years of governmental encouragement to invest in the project, then you have to wonder if Yukon is in fact open for business."
ATAC is consulting with its external legal counsel to evaluate its options on Yukon's decision to reject its application to build the Rau road.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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