Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 21/00) - Two years, hundreds of meetings and a forest worth of paper later, the Diavik diamond project is now a reality.

The diamond mine received the last approval it needed last Wednesday, when Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Robert Nault approved a Class A water licence for the $1.3 billion mine.

NWT Water Board chairman Gordon Wray announced the licence approval last week. News/North was unable to get a copy by deadline.

The licence specifies the amount of the security deposit for water-related liabilities, water pollution standards and monitoring programs for the mine.

The water board submitted the license for ministerial approval Aug. 11.

The project received authorizations from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and a permit from the Canadian Coast Guard on Aug. 2.

An earlier draft of the water licence obtained by News/North proposed limits of 150,000 cubic metres of water annually during the construction phase. During operation, the draft set a limit of 1.28 million cubic metres. Additional limits were specified for the removal of lake water.

The kimberlite pipes Diavik will be mining are beneath Lac de Gras. To get to them, the company is proposing to dam off a small part of the lake and pump out the water covering the pipes.

Under an environmental agreement between the company and the territorial and federal governments, Diavik is required to post up to $175 million in security to ensure the mine site is cleaned up.

The security deposit varies from year-to-year depending on the amount of restoration the site requires.