Baffinland Iron Mines may have to consider other routes to ship ore from its proposed Mary River mine site in Nunavut, due to public concerns presented to environmental assessors earlier this year.

The Nunavut Impact Review Board released draft guidelines last week for the environmental impact statement Baffinland will have to submit as part of the regulatory process.

Those guidelines have incorporated concerns, raised during the public consultation process, about the proposal to ship ore aboard icebreakers ore year-round from the mine, 160 kilometres south of Pond Inlet, through Foxe Basin and Hudson Strait and on to Europe.

The proposal, which would be unprecedented in Arctic shipping history if approved, raised environmental concerns in communities along the proposed route.

But Derek Chubb, Baffinland Iron Mines' vice-president of sustainable development, told CBC News the Foxe Basin proposal is the right fit, both environmentally and economically.

"We do feel that for the purpose of this project, on finding environmental balance, a fair rate of return on the project and all other considerations, that it is the only viable route for this project," Chubb said.

Port move suggested

As a result of the public consultations, the Nunavut Impact Review Board suggested that Baffinland study whether it can move its port to the east coast of Baffin Island to avoid Foxe Basin.

Another suggestion, it said, would be to ship only during the ice-free months.

But those alternatives, Chubb said, are not practical.

"The only feasible solution for shipping that we've identified is through the preferred option that we're putting forward," he said.

More than 1,000 Nunavummiut from 11 communities submitted comments on Baffinland's application during a series of public meetings that ended in May.

The Nunavut Impact Review Board is now waiting for public comment on the draft guidelines it has released.

"We'll spend a few weeks revising that draft document and then we will likely send it out for a second round of commenting," Ryan Barry of the review board said.

Concerned groups have until Aug. 4 to suggest changes.