Nanisivik
Nanisivik is a settlement in Nunavut, Canada.
Nanisivik is an Inuktitut word meaning: "the place where people find things".
The settlement is located at 73N 084W, at the North end of Baffin Island, and lies close to the eastern entrance to the Northwest Passage.
The Government of Canada plans to convert the port facilities of an abandoned mine into a naval base.[1][2] Currently patrol vessels have to go to Southern ports to refuel or for repairs.
Mine site
A lead-zinc mine operated in Nanisivik from 1974 to 2002.[3][4] A deep-water port was built, for shipping the ore to market.
When the mine closed, after a fall in world zinc prices, and the settlement was to be abandoned, there were plans to move equipment and building materials to the nearby community of Arctic Bay. But the mine had left the site so heavily contaminated the material could not be re-used.
In 2006 Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper announced plans to build an Arctic deep-water port, to service Arctic patrol vessels.[1][2] In 2007 Harper announced that the naval base would be built on the site of the abandoned port facilities of the mine.
Nanisivik airport
An airport at Nanisivik is large enough to service jet aircraft.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Planned army base, port in North heat up Arctic quest, CBC News, 2007-08-08. Retrieved on 2008-08-10. mirror
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Backgrounder - Expanding Canadian Forces Operations in the Arctic (HTML). Retrieved on 2007-08-17. mirror
- ↑ Arctic Bay impatient with slow Nanisivik transfer talks (HTML). Retrieved on 2007-08-17. mirror
- ↑ CBC - Contamination concerns grow at Nanisivik (html). Retrieved on 2007-08-17. mirror