Stephanie McDonald
Northern News Services
Wednesday, May 16, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - De Beers Snap Lake mine is on schedule to begin operation in October of this year.

"This is the first fully underground diamond mine in Canada," said Cathie Bolstad, manager, public and corporate affairs for De Beers NWT projects. It is also De Beers' first mine in Canada.

The project is on schedule thanks in part to a successful winter road season.

"We got all our loads in and additional loads of fuel," Bolstad said. The company was able to bring in 2,161 loads of fuel and freight, more than the 1,800 loads they anticipated moving.

Major pieces of equipment were brought in over the winter road, including a scrubber that was supposed to get to the mine last winter, but couldn't due to weight restrictions on the ice road.

De Beers had to adjust its construction schedule, as it had to leave open the roof and sidings of the process plant to get the scrubber in.

"We were chewing our nails about the scrubber, but it's gone in," Bolstad said.

De Beers was also able to bring in four generators and new underground mining equipment with a value of $22 million.

The Snap Lake site can house 744 workers which will increase by approximately 100 this summer. At the peak of construction this summer there will be 850 workers on site.

"Once we're in a steady state of operations we will have a much smaller mine," Bolstad said. Five hundred will be employed by the time operation begins, with 260 on site at any given time.

"De Beers is taking a different approach than the other two diamond mines and most of the employees will be De Beers employees as opposed to contractors," Bolstad said.

"We think this is one of the ways that we can provide a career opportunity for people opposed to a job underground."

As of mid-April $737,983,081 had been spent on construction at Snap Lake, 65 per cent with NWT businesses. Of NWT expenditures, 67 per cent had been with Aboriginal businesses or joint ventures.

Work at De Beer's other NWT mine, Gahcho Kue, remains on track.

"We had a good successful drilling season," Bolstad said.

There are currently 70 people working at the Gahcho Kue site according to Patrick Evans, president and chief executive officer of Mountain Province Diamonds, who holds a share in the project.

"The purpose of the winter drilling program was to better define the volume, geology, dilution and density of the grade in the Tuzo kimberlite pipe so that we could upgrade our information on the resource," Bolstad said.

De Beers has proposed a summer drilling program and will hear this month if it has been approved.

"We are looking to increase confidence in the resource," Bolstad said.

It is too early to predict when production will begin at the mine as it is still in the permitting stage.