Nunavut Inuit associations received 3% of extracted value from mining companies between 2021 and 2025: economist

Inuit associations in Nunavut received 3.1 per cent of the extracted value from mines in the territory between 2021 and 2025, according to an analysis by economist Erin Weir.

Nunavut’s four major Inuit associations were paid a combined $482.8 million in royalties and fees by mining companies over the five years, data from Extractive Sector Transparency Act reports show.

Over those same five years, $14.8 billion worth of gold and iron was extracted from mines in Nunavut, a Government of Nunavut budget document details.

“Mining companies are supposed to pay Inuit organizations for those minerals. It would be pretty rare for the owner of any product or resource to sell it for only three per cent of its value,” said Weir. “Of course, there are costs to mining. Nobody is expecting the territory or Inuit organizations to collect 100 per cent of the value, but three per cent is very low by any standard.”

A senior associate at SILO Strategy and former NDP MP from Saskatchewan, Weir said the minerals in the ground belong to Nunavummiut.

Payments to Inuit associations by mining companies in Nunavut skyrocketed in 2025. Last year, mining companies paid a combined $151.6 million to Inuit associations, a huge leap from the $94 million in 2024 and $77.1 million in 2023.

But even as the dollar value of payments rose, the share paid to Inuit associations increased by less than one per cent.

The four Inuit associations received 3.6 per cent of extracted value from Nunavut’s mines in 2025, up from 2.7 per cent in 2021.

That’s because the value of gold more than doubled in the five years.

“There was a huge increase in gold prices, and hence in mining profits,” Weir said. “Some of the charges collected are proportional to profit. In particular, the payments to NTI [Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated] are a percentage of operating profits.”

He estimates that the share of profits from Agnico Eagle’s Nunavut operations paid to Inuit associations actually decreased from 2023 to 2025, from 8.2 per cent to 5.5 per cent.

Conversely, Agnico Eagle’s payments to Inuit associations as a share of revenue stayed relatively flat, increasing from 3.5 per cent to 3.7 per cent.

Weir calculated that Agnico Eagle’s Nunavut operations generated $2.7 billion in profits in 2025, $1.7 billion in 2024, and $884 million in 2023, using the publicly traded value of gold and production figures from the company’s mines in the territory.

Agnico Eagle neither confirmed nor denied the figures when presented with them.

Pascale Dudemaine, communications director for Agnico Eagle, said, “Inuit-owned lands in Nunavut include subsurface mineral rights held by Inuit organizations under the framework established by the Nunavut Agreement. Organizations such as Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated manage these rights and collect royalties related to resource development on Inuit-owned lands.”

Payments made to Inuit associations by Agnico Eagle are the result of agreements made between the mining company and the organizations, Dudemaine said.

The increase in payments to Inuit associations is largely due to increased royalties to NTI.

In 2025, NTI took in $78.9 million from mining companies, up substantially from $29.4 million in 2024 and the $21.7 million collected in 2023.

“NTI receives a 12 per cent net profits interest royalty. This means the royalty is based on profits, rather than simply being a percentage of gross revenues,” NTI President Gloria Uluqsi said.

Rising gold prices were the cause of increased payments to NTI, Uluqsi confirmed.

Most gold mining in Nunavut is currently based in the Kivalliq region, with the Hope Bay mine under reconstruction and B2Gold’s Goose Mine only beginning production at the end of last year.

But the Kivalliq Inuit Association did not receive the same increase in royalties as NTI.

In 2025, Agnico Eagle paid the Kivalliq Inuit Association $54.8 million, up from $47.8 million in 2024, and $38.3 million in 2023.

Uluqsi said NTI communicates with other Inuit associations about royalty agreements, but other organizations have their own autonomy.

“Inuit organizations share information related to lessons learned and best practices. Given that negotiation of Inuit impact and benefit agreements is a delegated responsibility to the regional Inuit associations [RIAs], Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. respects the autonomy of the RIAs to negotiate agreements in relation to resource development,” Uluqsi stated.

The Kivalliq Inuit Association declined to comment.

Different negotiations approach

Weir said Inuit associations could get a better deal if they negotiated a share of profits with mining companies.

“I think that the ideal royalty structure is a combination of a basic percentage of the value of the resource extracted, plus a larger percentage of the mine profits,” Weir said.

The Kitikmeot Inuit Association will share one per cent of revenue in royalties from the Hope Bay mine with other Inuit associations, Ammar Al-Joundi, president and CEO of Agnico Eagle, said in May.

Between 2021 and 2025, the Kitikmeot Inuit Association received $15.4 million in royalties and fees from mining companies. Gold extraction stopped at the Hope Bay mine in 2022 and the B2Gold Goose Mine only began production during the last quarter of 2025. For those reasons, the Kitikmeot Inuit Association and B2Gold were not interviewed for this article, but the figures paid involving those entities have been included in the totals.

The Qikiqtaaluk region is home to Nunavut’s only iron ore mine —Mary River — owned by Baffinland Iron Mines.

Iron prices have not enjoyed the same increase as gold prices, and Baffinland’s payments to the Qikiqtani Inuit Association have remained relatively flat over five years.

The Qikiqtani Inuit Association received $14.2 million from Baffinland in 2025, down from $14.7 million in 2024, and up from $13.8 million in 2023.

Weir estimates Baffinland yields $581 million worth of iron ore each year, and that the company’s payments to the Qikiqtani Inuit Association represent 3.3 per cent of the Mary River mine’s extracted value.

Baffinland’s contributions also come in the form of Inuit employment and wages, training and skills development, contracting and procurement opportunities and significant investments in the communities, including the $12.2 million the company contributed to a training centre in Pond Inlet, said Peter Akman, head of communications for the mining company.

“With respect to the suggested annual ‘extracted value’ of the Mary River mine and the percentage calculations based on that figure, we would not characterize Baffinland’s contribution using that methodology,” Akman said.

“The value of production varies based on production volumes, realized iron ore pricing, shipping and other factors, and comparing selected payment categories against a generalized extracted-value figure would not provide a complete picture of Baffinland’s economic contribution in Nunavut,” he added.

At the time of publication, the Qikiqtani Inuit Association said it was still working on a response to the figures in this article.

Neither Agnico Eagle, nor Baffinland, nor NTI disputed any of the aforementioned figures in this article when presented to them.

Corporate income taxes and fees from mines made up an even smaller share than that paid to Inuit associations.

From 2021 to 2025, Nunavut mining companies paid a combined $52.3 million in corporate income taxes and fees to the federal government, the GN and municipalities.

That adds up to 0.4 per cent of extracted value from Nunavut mines going to all three levels of government combined, not including payroll tax and fuel tax.

Between 2021 and 2025, Agnico Eagle paid $42.3 million in taxes and fees to the GN, the Hamlet of Baker Lake, and the Hamlet of Rankin Inlet.

B2Gold paid just under $2 million in taxes and fees to the federal government and the GN over the five-year period.

Baffinland paid $8 million to the federal government and the Hamlet of Pond Inlet between 2021 and 2025.

Weir argued that Ontario and Quebec receive a greater share of extracted value from Agnico Eagle gold mines in those provinces, mostly because those provincial governments charge higher royalty fees than the GN.

First Nations in Ontario and Quebec receive a much smaller share of royalties than Inuit in Nunavut, but the overall payments per ounce of gold at Agnico Eagle mines down south is much higher.

Agnico Eagle said the figures are not comparable.

“These mining taxes and royalties are separate from (and in addition to) income taxes and are intended to compensate governments for the extraction of non-renewable resources,” Dudemaine said. “The applicable rate and calculation of these mining taxes and royalties varies significantly from one jurisdiction to another and cannot be compared using a simple percentage of revenue, profit or production.”

The Government of Nunavut did not respond to questions from Nunavut News prior to press deadline.