From: Joyce Mason [hilltop@ncf.ca]
Sent: December 12, 2008 12:14 PM
To: lpayette@nirb.ca
Subject: re Uravan Mineral's application

Leslie Payette
Nunavut Impact Review Board
Mgr. Environmental Administration
lpayette@nirb.ca


Dear Nunavut Impact Review Board

This letter is to register my opposition to mineral development by Uravan Minerals on the Beverly caribou calving grounds.
Research has shown that the caribou are in grave danger and the NIRB need to protect them and their habitat. 

As reported by CP, the CBC, The Globe and Mail, and elsewhere today, “The massive Beverly herd, which roams the tundra from northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan and well into the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, once numbered about 276,000 animals. But a just-released survey suggests the number of caribou cows on the calving grounds of the massive Beverly herd have fallen by a stunning 98 per cent over the last 14 years.”


Major mining companies – De Beers, Areva, and Cameco – have declared that they will no longer conduct activities on caribou calving and post-calving grounds in Nunavut, because they understand the implications of this activity.

The declining herds will affect many economically.  Many people in Nunavat, NWT, Sask. and Man. rely on the caribou meat.

I hope that the NIRB would consider these points and reject the Uravan mining application.

Sincerely
Joyce Mason