Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. has reported three recent fuel spills at its Mary River mining project in Nunavut, but officials say none of the spilled fuel has leaked onto the land or into the sea.

In June, about 5,000 litres of jet fuel leaked out of a containment bladder in the mine site's tank farm at Milne Inlet. The fuel collected in sand sitting in an impermeable liner designed to keep spills from being released into the environment.

"We did have an incident within an engineered, contained facility. It was contained within the facility as designed," Derek Chubb, Baffinland's vice-president of sustainable development, told CBC News.

"We've worked with the manufacturer to understand why the tank may have failed, and we've been working with government to make sure that everybody's in the loop as to how we have dealt with this incident."

While that leak was discovered on June 16, during a routine inspection of the tank farm, it took the Toronto-based junior mining firm five weeks to report it. Chubb said the delay in reporting the spill was because of a communication problem.

Baffinland has also reported two smaller spills in August, both of which were also contained within specially engineered structures.

Those spills occurred at the Mary River site camp, and each involved less than 200 litres of jet fuel and diesel fuel.

"It's not uncommon to have small incidents that do occur through the course of normal business," Chubb said.

"What we make sure is that in the event that that does happen, that we have immediate followup to these incidents to make sure that there isn't any risk to the environment."

The Mary River site is located about 160 kilometres south of Pond Inlet on Baffin Island.

Officials with the federal Indian and Northern Affairs Department, which monitors Baffinland's water licence, say the company may have held off on reporting the June spill because it did not cause any environmental damage.

"There was no spill, there was no release into the environment," said Michael Nadler, the department's regional director general in Nunavut.

"The fuel was completely contained by secondary containment structures, so that might have led to their hesitation to report it."