There are now between 650 to 800 workers on site near Lac de Gras -- a lake surprisingly not visible from the main site.

"When it was first discovered, there was a lot of skepticism. There's $750 million we're investing. I'm confident we'll have a successful mine here," says BHP Diamonds Inc. president Jim Rothwell.

Big-wheeled trucks work feverishly at the Panda pit, blazing a dust-packed trail. Eighty-five-tonne trucks haul excavated material from the site. The pit has largely been drained and pre-stripping has started. The wind is strong enough to send hard hats and dirt specs scattering.

Road construction -- about 20 winding kilometres of built-up crushed rock that tapers around lakes to be drained for open pit mining -- has progressed well.

Also weaving around the lakes is a 2.7-kilometre diversion of water from the Panda Lake headwaters that veers to Kodiak Lake. It's used to accommodate fish travel, says Jeff Stibbard, site superintendent.

Drinking water comes from Grizzly Lake, which is used as a control lake for water monitoring.

"It's sampled on a regular basis for nutrients and physical parameters," says environmental manager John Witteman.

On site is the fruit of more than 2,000 truckloads that made it up the winter road over the past year. Giant assembled scoops, wood, piping, tubing, heavy equipment and a family of construction cranes all inhabit this community of workers on the barrens.

The perimeter of the camp area is protected by electric fencing. Garbage is incinerated, so it won't attract grizzly bears, foxes, wolverines or wolves. And caribou can be spotted some days.

Security is tight. There's no souvenir rock-collecting permitted and a series of security passes are required to board an aircraft going to the camp, at the camp, and then to leave the camp.

The accommodation complex, cafeteria, recreation area, boiler room, first aid, locker room and living area for the workers is clean, fresh and spacious -- a self-contained community with 375 double-occupancy rooms. The compound even has its own speed limits of 20 km/h around the camp and 40 km/h elsewhere.

There's a tank farm, diesel power, food supply and state-of-the-art communications equipment. In case of emergencies, there's two fire trucks and an ambulance and nursing station.

For recreation, there's an overhead running track circling the locker room, a squash court, four pool tables, two shuffle boards and TV.

Jim Rothwell is fairly new to the diamond business but not to BHP. He's worked for the company for 25 years on several continents, in countries like Brazil and Australia.

Rothwell became president of BHP Diamonds Inc. in March. He's based in Vancouver, but visits BHP's Koala Camp about once every three weeks.

"It's the most exciting project I've been involved with ... because we're building something new," he told a travelling press corps from Yellowknife and Edmonton during a one-day tour the camp last week.

There are 82 kimberlite pipes (geological formations associated with diamonds) on the project, 20 of which have been tested, and five are in the mine plan.

"The pipes will be mined sequentially, three at a time," says Rothwell. "There may be two or three others (pipes) but we haven't proved they're economic yet," Rothwell says.