According to the article below, the EIS work seem to be on track.

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674nunavut_board_holding_gold_mining_company_to_its_promises/

NEWS: Nunavut November 18, 2014 - 2:30 pm

Sabina commits to list of changes for Back River mine

Review of Back River project continues in Cambridge Bay

THOMAS ROHNER

Ryan Barry, executive director of the Nunavut Impact Review Board, chairs technical meetings on Sabina Gold and Silver Corporation's Back River gold project at Luke Novoligak Hall in Cambridge Bay Nov. 13. A community roundtable and pre-hearing conference on Back River continue this week. (PHOTO BY RED SUN PRODUCTIONS)

(Updated Nov. 19, 7:00 p.m.)

Sabina Gold and Silver Corp. answered dozens of questions about its Back River gold project during technical meetings in Cambridge Bay last week — promising to address the many concerns of experts, scientists, civil servants, Inuit leaders and Kitikmeot residents.

The Nunavut Impact Review Board, following technical meetings it hosted in Cambridge Bay Nov. 13 to Nov. 15, published a long list of issues raised by various parties that the company voluntarily agreed to address in going forward with the western Nunavut mine.

“These commitments have since been brought forward into the NIRB’s pre-hearing conference [PHC] and will form a part of the direction the NIRB will give through it’s PHC decision regarding updates to Sabina’s draft environmental impact statement,” wrote the NIRB’s executive director, Ryan Barry, in an email to Nunatsiaq News.

By doing so, the NIRB is trying to ensure Sabina addresses issues raised before drafting its final environmental impact statement, Barry said.

Most of the company’s commitments for this project pertain to the protection and management of ecosystems near mine sites and along the proposed shipping route, through Bathurst Inlet.

The basis for the technical discussion stemmed from the company’s draft environmental impact statement which Sabina filed nearly a year ago, in January 2014.

The commitments, listed by the NIRB, include a “mitigation response decision tree for approaching caribou,” an adaptive management plan if caribou herds should shift their ranges into the project area, and future population monitoring efforts, with other management partners such as the Government of Nunavut, for caribou, muskox and grizzly bear.

Many of the comments submitted to the NIRB on Sabina’s Back River project, accessible on the board’s website, focus on wildlife including the project’s impact on the Bathurst caribou herd, whose numbers have been estimated at 10,000, down from about 60,000 in 2006.

The Back River project, located about 400 kilometers south of Cambridge Bay on the mainland, encompasses seven properties on about 120,000 acres.

Once in operation, the company predicts it will produce 300,000 to 400,000 ounces of gold per year over 10 to 15 years.

The proposed project, which includes six open-pit mines within the Goose and George properties and one underground mine at Goose, would employ 1,600 workers during its two-year construction phase and 900 during mine operations.

The project would include roads within the properties, between the properties, and linking the properties to the Bathurst Inlet shipping area — known as the marine laydown area.

According to the list of commitments, Sabina agreed to reconsider the alignment of its winter road to the marine laydown area because of potential impacts on the nearby ecosystem. The area would be used as a fuel storage tank farm and receiving dock for annual sealifts.

Agencies from both the federal and territorial governments submitted concerns to the NIRB about the potential impact shipping would have on marine mammals and other wildlife along the inlet.

In response, according to the NIRB document, Sabina agreed to provide the following:

• details on whether fuel storage includes overwintering of fuel vessels in the sea ice;

• site-specific water quality objectives and management plans;

• identification and consideration of migratory bird colonies along the shipping route;

• studies on polar bear distribution density along the route; and,

• more information on fuel spill risks as well as identifying best- and worst- case spill scenarios.

Sabina also committed to addressing the cumulative impacts from the shipping activities of other Kitikmeot region mining projects — both proposed and approved — including TMAC’s Hope Bay,Xstrata’s Hackett River and MMG’s Izok Corridor.

Ore from the Back River mine would be processed at the Goose property, poured into gold bars and flown out by air.

One of Sabina’s commitments listed in the NIRB document says, “at this time the Goose Property Airstrip will not be designed to accommodate aircrafts as large as a Boeing 767.

“If larger aircraft are selected as a viable option,” the passage continues, “Sabina commits to updating the air quality and noise models and conduct an effects assessment to address the potential effects of this larger class of aircraft.”

Concerns raised at community consultations in the region, held earlier this year, centred on job opportunities as well, and Barry said in his email that parties again raised concerns over employment, training, workforce scheduling and apprenticeship opportunities at the Cambridge Bay meetings.

Two days of community consultations and a pre-hearing conference wrap up this week in Cambridge Bay.