Trail Marking Project

TSM Excellence Awards acknowledge innovative projects and initiatives that expand and promote sustainable development within the mining sector. 

This year, we wanted to highlight the Trail Marking Project, a project that we have been working on in collaboration with our host communities since 2017. It is a great example of how host communities and industries can work together to achieve key goals, especially when it has a direct impact on the health and safety of individuals. 

Over the past years, Nunavimmiut noticed that climate change has severely affected their traditional trails used to access hunting and fishing areas. Accessing such locations by snowmobile and ATV has been getting increasingly dangerous year after year. In 2017, leaders in Salluit started showing interest in the unique approaches used to mark our roads on the mine site. Marking the roads with flags ensures a better visibility on the road in case of bad weather, which is extremely important given the harsh weather conditions of Nunavik.

Since our technique can easily be duplicated to address health and safety for local communities traveling on their hunting and fishing territory. We started working in long-term collaboration with the communities to address their needs.  After seeing what the community of Salluit was doing, Kangiqsujuaq wished to conduct the same project in collaboration with Raglan Mine in 2019. 

These projects have created employment opportunities related to administration, installation and sewing of flags at the local sewing center – not to mention the interesting business opportunity to sell the locally made flags to Raglan Mine. By helping the communities put the program in place, sharing our knowledge with them, and giving donations and funding, the trail marking project has changed the lives of many. Today, people that go hunting or fishing do not have to face the same level of risk as they used to.