Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation (PBCN) has reached an agreement with Denison Mines on the Wheeler River uranium mining project.
The terms of the agreement are confidential but PBCN says the deal will launch a community-based environmental monitoring program that will be owned and run by the nation, rather than the company or the province.
“This agreement is about making sure our people are part of the work happening on our lands,” said Chief Peter Beatty. “Our members know this territory, and they have an important role to play in protecting it.”
As a result of the agreement, PBCN has also discontinued the judicial review of the project it had filed against the province.
PBCN will work with Denison to finalize the details of the monitoring program, but anticipates that members participating will support overseeing environmental impacts connected to development in PBCN’s traditional territory. Further details on the monitoring program will be released as planning continues.
Denison is uranium exploration and development company with interests in the Athabasca Basin region of Northern Saskatchewan. On their website, they describe Wheeler River as “the largest undeveloped uranium project in the infrastructure-rich eastern portion of the Athabasca Basin region.”
Denison says they discovered high-grade Phoenix and Gryphon uranium deposits in the area in 2008 and 2014 and believes both deposits “have the potential to be competitive with the lowest cost uranium mining operations in the world.”
editorial@paherald.sk.ca
