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SNAP LAKE - "Can I borrow a glass cutter? ... said Terry Heard, staring at a glass-covered display of diamonds recovered at De Beers' Snap Lake Mine.

Heard, president of Mayan Minerals, was one of about 80 guests flown to Snap Lake Friday to celebrate the mine's official opening.

Blackie Marole, Managing Director of Debswana Diamond Company, a partnership between the government of Botswana and De Beers, travelled all the way from Africa to attend the Snap Lake Mine's official opening. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

The production ramp-up began at Snap Lake late last year and it hit commercial production earlier this year.

Heard and other guests, many of them contractors who helped build the mine, mingled with De Beers Group representatives from Europe and southern Africa in the main dining hall of the mine, located 220 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife.

De Beers released up-to-date numbers on the economic benefits the mine has produced.

Between January 2005 and June of this year, $1.1 billion was spent on the mine, the first fully underground diamond mine in Canada.

Seventy per cent of that total, or $775 million, was spent with Northern companies. Of that spending about 67 per cent was with Aboriginal companies or joint ventures.

Fifty-one per cent of the mine's employees live in the NWT.

After a surface tour of the facility Premier Floyd Roland expressed wonder at what it takes to dig diamonds out of the ground.

"I find it remarkable that it took over $1.1 billion to build this facility,... said Roland. "The government just passed its budget.

"The total budget, including capital, was $1.3 billion. So this one facility matches our own spending for a whole year."

Roland said Snap Lake's opening serves as a model for the future economic development of the NWT.

"As I was walking through this facility, I thought, 'We would be so blessed in the Northwest Territories if we could do the same in many of our own communities' - to match the level of infrastructure that's in this facility,... he said. "You've helped put Canada on the global map."

De Beers chairman Nicky Oppenheimer, on hand to officially open Snap Lake on Friday, then travelled to northern Ontario where De Beers Canada opened its second project, Victor Mine on Saturday.

Oppenheimer said his company, which had previously not opened any mines outside South Africa, highly values its Canadian assets.

"This has established De Beers' presence in an obvious and determined way here in Canada,... he said.

"There's no doubt that when diamonds were first discovered here in Canada, De Beers missed the boat.

"We did come to prospect in Canada in those days, but in some downturn of the world economy, sitting far away in Johannesburg, South Africa, no doubt myself partially responsible, we decided that Canada was a long way away and in order to save the money, we cut down our operations here.

"How wrong we were, and how we allowed our competitors to get ahead of us," he said.

"We saw the error of our ways, and through Snap Lake and the Victor Diamond mine, I believe De Beers is ahead of the game."

The Snap Lake ore body was purchased by De Beers from Winspear Diamonds in 2000.

The permits to build and operate the mine were obtained in May 2004.

The mine employs about 560 workers, with around 400 people on the site at any time, and has a mine life of about 20 years.

After a decision earlier this year to take an impairment charge of $965 million on its Canadian assets, including Snap Lake, De Beers expects to produce 1.5 million carats per year at the mine, according to De Beers Canada spokesperson Cathie Bolstad.