Bathurst Inlet is a deep inlet located along the northern coast of the Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 mainland, into which the Burnside and Western Rivers empty. The name, or its native equivalent Kingoak (Qingaut, nose mountain), is also used to identify the community of Bathurst Inlet

Bathurst Inlet, Nunavut

Bathhurst Inlet, , is a small Inuit community located in Bathurst Inlet in the Kitikmeot Region of Canada's Nunavut Territory...

 located on the shore.

Plans for a deep-water port

A consortium of seven mining companies are sponsoring environmental impact studies to construct a deep-water port in Bathurst Inlet.
Their plans include building a 211 km (131.1 mi) road connecting the port to their mines. The port would serve vessels of up to 25,000 tonnes.

A plan referred to the Nunavut Impact Review Board in May 2004 projected a capacity to moor vessels of up to 50,000 tonnes.
In this earlier plan the Bathurst Inlet Road would be an ice road

Ice road

Ice roads are frozen, human-made structures on the surface of bays, rivers, lakes, or seas in the far north. They link dry land, frozen waterways, portages and winter roads, and are usually remade each winter. Ice roads allow temporary transport to areas with no permanent road access...

, like that from Yellowknife, not an all-weather road as in post-2005 proposals, following the failure of the ice road to freeze early enough to allow transport of a whole year's worth of supplies.

Members of the Consortium

Corporation	mine site	notes
Sabina Silver Corporation	Hackett River mine	Silver and Zinc
Zinifex Zinifex Zinifex was an Australian company which operated two zinc and lead mines, three zinc refineries and a lead smelter. It was created following the insolvency of Pasminco in 2002, taking on Pasminco operations. In 2008 it merged with Oxiana Limited to form OZ Minerals.-History:Zinifex was the...	Izok Lake mine	Copper and Zinc
Rio Tinto Incorporated Rio Tinto Group The Rio Tinto Group is a diversified, British-Australian, multinational mining and resources group with headquarters in London and Melbourne. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto river, in Huelva, Spain from the...	Diavik Diamond Mine Diavik Diamond Mine The Diavik Diamond Mine is a diamond mine in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada, about north of Yellowknife.It has become an important part of the regional economy, employing 700, grossing C$100 million in sales, and producing 8 million carats of diamonds annually...	Diamonds
Miramar Mining
Dundee Precious Metals
BHP Billiton BHP Billiton BHP Billiton is a global mining, oil and gas company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and with a major management office in London, United Kingdom...	Ekati Diamond Mine Ekati Diamond Mine The EKATI Diamond Mine is Canada's first surface and underground diamond mine. It is located north-east of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and about south of the Arctic circle, near Lac de Gras. EKATI is a joint venture between BHP Billiton Canada Inc...	Diamonds
De Beers De Beers De Beers is a family of companies that dominate the diamond, diamond mining, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. De Beers is active in every category of industrial diamond mining: open-pit, underground, large-scale alluvial, coastal and deep sea...

Environmental issues

Environmental groups have raised concerns over the impact the road would have on the annual migration of the Bathurst Caribou herd.