For the second time this month, the Nisga'a Nation has announced its signed a deal with a resource company for a share of the revenue from a project within Nisga'a traditional territory.
This time it's with Seabridge Gold, which is seeking environmental approval for its KSM gold mine.
“The agreement includes commitments by Seabridge regarding jobs and contracting opportunities at the KSM Project, education and training, financial payments and a framework for working together on ongoing development matters,” states a release from the company this morning.
In addition to economic benefits, the Nisga'a have agreed to provide support letters to provincial and federal regulators and to potential investors.
The release indicates there will be “financial payments upon the achievement of certain project milestones and annual production payments based on a percentage of net profits, with the net profits payable normalizing after the project has recovered its capital costs, as determined under the terms of the agreement.”
The agreement also covers Nisga'a employment and business opportunities tied to the proposed mine.
“They began consulting with us very early on in the development of the KSM Project design. They listened to our concerns and took them seriously. They have been very responsive to our concerns around the environmental and social impacts of the project on Nisga'a Treaty interests,” said Nisga'a Lisims Government president Mitchell Stevens in the release.
Earlier this month the Nisga'a signed a revenue sharing deal with Avanti Mining regarding its planned molybdenum mine at Kitsault, also located within Nisga'a traditional territory.