Deninu Kue First Nation gets rights to diamond benefits

The Deninu Kue First Nation in Fort Resolution, N.W.T., has signed its first impact benefit agreement, or IBA, with the owner of a diamond mine, De Beers Canada.

The agreement, signed last week, will provide the band with money, jobs, training and scholarship funds when production begins at De Beers' Gahcho Kue diamond mine, which is expected in 2016.

“This is Akaitcho territory,” says Louis Balsillie, chief of the Deninu Kue First Nation.

Previously, diamond companies denied that Fort Resolution, which is south of Great Slave Lake, had any right to claim benefits from the diamond mines. However, the band did its homework and looked at band member's traditional activities north of the lake where the diamonds are.

Balsilllie says his band has missed out on previous IBAs and watched in frustration as other Akaitcho groups signed agreements with mining companies.

The agreement with De Beers — and its partner on Gahcho Kue, Mountain Province Diamonds — changes that.

“All the other First Nations are getting IBAs. Deninu Kue hasn't received one. We've signed two other ones, with Tamerlane and Avalon, but they didn't move forward with any of their projects yet. So this one here, it's a big deal for us.”

The agreement with Deninu Kue is the last IBA to be signed for Gahcho Kue. An agreement with the NWT Métis First Nation was inked earlier this month. 

"The social commitment piece is really important to us," says Tom Ormsby, De Beers' director of external and corporate affairs in Canada. "This is a really important step, to have them all concluded." 

This is the first agreement of its kind that the Deninu Kue First Nation has signed with the owner of a diamond mine.  

Balsillie adds that his band is in talks with Dominion Diamond Corporation about signing IBAs for the Ekati and Diavik diamond mines.