Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the past two years we have seen the evolution of an ambitious innovative mining project in the Tu Nedhe Wiilideh riding. The Nechalacho rare earth mining is the largest private sector project in the riding, and it is having a significant job to business impacts for us.
The project began last summer 110 kilometers southeast of Yellowknife. By the end the first season. Nechalacho had a mine of 5,000 tonnes of crush concentrate over a thousand tonnes of exceptionally highgrade rare earth ore. At the end of the season, 500 tonnes of concentrate of exceptionally high grade ore was shipped by our government marine transportation to Hay River for intermodal train and truck shipping to Saskatoon for further processing. This valuable NWT resource will be further processed for sale to international refineries in Norway and likely Alaska.
Mr. Speaker, this project marks the NWT and Canada bold entry into the global markets supply chain for critical rare earth elements. When we drive our trucks, use our cell phones, click on our computers, or build fibre optic lines, we are using rare earth. They are essential for our clean tech and high tech industry, and the need for them is growing at an incredible rate. The proponent are Vital Metal Limited of Australia and it's Canadian mining company Cheetah Resources Corporation, headquartered here in the NWT.
They have designed one of the most efficient environmental low impact mines in Canada.
They have impressive social benefits including 70 percent of Indigenous employment among their workers and management. Mr. Speaker, many are from my community of Wiilideh and Lutsel K'e and Deninu Kue.
It's also the first mine in Canada to concentrate on an Indigenous-owned corporation. The Yellowknives Dene First Nation Det'on Cho Corporation to conduct mining on its own traditional territory.
Nechalacho is Canada's first rare earth mine. It's starting out small, Mr. Speaker, but as early as 2024, it plans to move to a much larger deposit with potential to be a multi-generating producer. This expansion -- this can have both long-term benefits for the NWT struggling mining economy.
At the appropriate time, it will be my pleasure to introduce our project senior executive to the Assembly and to ask questions to the Minister of Lands regarding our role in government in enabling this project. Mahsi.
