Impacts and benefits – CIM Magazine

September 11, 2023

If our industry gets it right in Canada, we can build a Brand Canada approach that will be a best practice in the world

At CIM’s recent Montreal conference, themed “Building Trust to Decarbonize the World,” we had some great keynote sessions. One of them focused on the need for miners to ensure that we build trust with the Indigenous communities in which we operate or are proposing to operate.

This really resonated with me as it is a very important area for my company, B2Gold, in every jurisdiction we operate in but most recently right here in Canada. In April 2023, B2Gold acquired the Back River project in Nunavut from Sabina Gold & Silver. Back River will be our sixth operating mine but our first significant venture on home soil. In doing so, we realized we needed to adjust our engagement approach to ensure we are meeting the social expectations around successfully working in Canada’s largest settled Indigenous land claim—Nunavut. This newest Canadian Territory was formed in 1999 with the Inuit as signatories to the Nunavut Agreement.