Tamerlane Ventures' plan to revive the N.W.T.'s defunct Pine Point zinc-lead mine should be viewed with skepticism, Thebacha MLA Michael Miltenberger says.

Miltenberger points out that Tamerlane is chaired by Margaret Kent, formerly known as Peggy Witte, who headed Royal Oak Mines when it abandoned Yellowknife's Giant Mine, leaving taxpayers to pay for the cleanup.

The company says it wants to extract a bulk ore sample for testing as part of its feasibility study of the Pine Point mine.

Miltenberger suspects the company simply wants to remove the highest grade ore from the old mine site near the south shore of Great Slave Lake, between Fort Resolution and Hay River, and not follow through with putting the mine into production.

"Is it an issue of they want to test it and see if they want to mine the rest, or are they going to high grade?" he asked in a recent CBC News interview.

Hay River MLA Jane Groenewegen, however, is optimistic about the project.

Concerns stemming from the cleanup at the Giant Mine are answered by modern environmental reviews, which ensure mining is done in an environmentally sensitive manner, she says, also noting the benefits a mine could bring to the area.

"We're looking forward to what they might be able to do and some of the spinoffs and benefits this might create, not only for Hay River but for the whole South Slave," she said.

Tamerlane project manager David Swisher says there are environmental and economic reasons for choosing the highest grade deposit to bulk sample.

"One of the reasons we chose this particular deposit is that it's not near any streams or rivers and we're at least 14 kilometres from the lake," he said.

The profits from the bulk sample will be used to buy a mill to process other deposits on the site, he said.