Desgagnés Support for Arctic Mining Projects

With its head office located in Quebec City, and an operation management office in Sainte Catherine (QC), Desgagnés Transarctik Inc. (DTI) is a major sealift operator in the Eastern and Central Arctic. Due to their remoteness and isolation, most of the Inuit communities and a few mining sites rely on sealift for the transportation and delivery of various types of commodities, supplies, vehicles and equipment of all types.
DTI and its partner, Nunavut Sealink and Supply Inc. (NSSI) are the carrier for the Nunavut territorial government, as well as for many local institutions, businesses, individuals and notably, the mining sectors.
In fact, for mining sectors, the remoteness and isolation result in relatively high construction and operating costs. It is therefore important to rely on the carrier with the most adequate assets, solid experience and a proven expertise, in order to achieve cost efficiency in transportation as much as a timely delivery.
In the recent years, the major upsurges in mining activities in the Canadian Arctic have necessitated Desgagnés to rapidly adapt to oversized and heavy cargoes. These include specialized heavy equipment, off-road vehicles and dimensional prefabricated structures.
Further, Desgagnés Transarctik Inc. has added numerous new auxiliary vessels of higher capability and better performance, such as tugs and barges for cargo transfer, and a variety of related loading and discharge equipment.
Furthermore, due to the nature of mining cargo, being mostly heavy and often dimensional, the deployment of larger transfer barges became a necessity to improve on the overall operational safety and to achieve a better stability during the transfer of cargo from ship at anchor to shore. DTI has also restructured and updated its operational procedures to new standards in the recent years, to maximize safety and efficiency at all times and to fully meet environmental protection standards and its stewardship.
Finally, through its partnership with NSSI, which mainly includes Nunavut Birthright Corporations, Desgagnés brings an added value to every contract of carriage concluded with mining companies in Nunavut. Considering the importance of the Inuit Impact and Benefit Agreement (IIBA), which is valued by Nunavut Inuit Associations as sinequanone for the implementation of any mining project in Nunavut, Desgagnés, with its Inuit Partners, are trustworthy partners to team-up with for the full success of mining cargo projects.