Andrea Markey
Northern News Services

West Kitikmeot (Oct 03/05) - Nunavut's first diamond mine is set to start production early next year.

"Everything we know today tells us we are on schedule," said Greg Missal, vice-president of government and regulatory affairs with Tahera Diamond Corporation.

Tahera's Jericho Diamond Project, located approximately 300 km south of Kugluktuk and 420 km northeast of Yellowknife, will be Canada's third diamond mine.

With work going 24 hours a day during the summer, outdoor construction at the site is wrapping up on the kimberlite processing plant.

Clark Builders, the general contractor on-site, will soon move its workers indoors to finish the interior of the plant and truck shop over the next few months.

All buildings are expected to be completed by the end of this year, with full production scheduled for early 2006.

Approximately 550 truckloads of building supplies, equipment and fuel were trucked up last year's ice road. Very little remains to go up the ice road this year, said Missal.

Nuna Logistics is the mining contractor.

The mining method will be open-pit, with the possibility of underground mining in the future.

The projected capital cost of $76.5 million for mining operations at Jericho was increased to $94.4 million earlier this year, in part due to higher labour, steel and fuel costs.

Throughout the nine-year mine life, between 125 and 175 people, including mine employees and contractors, will be needed to operate the processing plant and work the mining operations, half of whom will be on site at any one time.

The proposed work schedule is similar to the two operational diamond mines in the NWT, with two 12-hour shifts per day, seven days a week.

The work schedule for individuals will be two weeks on, two weeks off.

To this point, the company hasn't experienced a shortage of workers.

"So far, so good," he said.

The project is small, relative to other mining projects, so there is not the same type of intensive hiring requirements, he said.

"The big push will happen over the next few months," he said. "We'll know very shortly what the response is to that."

Federal approval for the Jericho Diamond Project was received in June 2004, with water licence approval granted in January of this year.

In February, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada granted federal land leases for Crown lands, with the Kitikmeot Inuit Association providing access rights to Inuit-owned surface rights land.

The KIA Land Lease was finalized in June of this year.

ear.