Purtuniq Airport

The airport was closed because it was replaced by a superior facility. The original Purtuniq airstrip was a small, gravel runway suitable only for smaller STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) aircraft used during the mine's exploration and early development phases. As the Raglan Mine project moved into full-scale construction and operation, a larger, all-weather airport (Kattiniq/Donaldson Airport) was required to handle larger aircraft like the Boeing 737, which were needed to transport hundreds of workers and heavy cargo. The closure was a planned infrastructure upgrade and relocation, not due to economic failure or an accident.

The site is abandoned and permanently closed to all air traffic. Satellite imagery clearly shows the remnants of a single gravel runway approximately 20 kilometers west of the currently active Kattiniq/Donaldson Airport. The runway is unmaintained and is slowly being reclaimed by the arctic tundra. There are no remaining buildings or support infrastructure at the airstrip site itself. It exists today only as a historical relic of the mine's early development.

Purtuniq Airport was a private airstrip of critical importance to the development of the Raglan Mine, one of Canada's most significant nickel and copper mining operations. In the harsh, remote environment of Nunavik, the airstrip served as the essential logistical lifeline during the mine's exploration and feasibility stages, likely from the 1960s through the early 1990s. It enabled the transport of geologists, surveyors, equipment, and supplies to the site, which was otherwise inaccessible by land for most of the year. Operations would have consisted primarily of charter flights using rugged bush planes, such as the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter and DHC-3 Otter, capable of operating from short, unpaved runways.

There are zero plans or prospects for reopening Purtuniq Airport. Its function has been entirely and permanently superseded by the modern and fully-serviced Kattiniq/Donaldson Airport (CTU2), which effectively serves all aviation needs for the Raglan Mine and the surrounding area. Reopening the old, smaller airstrip would serve no economic or logistical purpose.