SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The co-owner of Arslanian Cutting Works shut down the diamond row plant earlier this week, stating he plans to reassess what to do with the business in the new year.

"The plant is not open now, that is for sure. It is closed," said Ron Basal.

The plant has not laid off any staff, he said, but it does not normally close for the Christmas season.

It's not the first time the business has ceased operations this year. The plant issued layoffs to 35 employees in June. The next month, Arslanian rehired five employees, with tentative plans to rehire the remaining 30 workers in October or November.

In the fall, Arslanian ultimately rehired 14 additional workers, bringing its total staff to 19. Basal said he would announce his intentions for Arslanian and its sister plant, Polar Bear Diamonds, also located on diamond row, early next year.

"We will come with a news conference and the release of what the outcome of the diamond factories in Yellowknife will be," he said.

Whether the plant reopens depends on talks Basal hopes to have with the GNWT, which is currently revising its diamond policy.

But besides saying he does not seek money from the territorial government, Basal would not go into detail about what kind of support he's looking for.

"We have to work with the government very strongly, hand-in-hand, in order for us to stay there," he said. "We're looking for a few things that they would have to honour."

At its peak, Arslanian polished 4,000 diamonds a month, compared to a rate of 1,000 a month in September. But cash flow has been a persistent problem for the plant, with clients often paying with credit and therefore delaying the payment to Arslanian, Bob Bies, general manager of the plant, told Yellowknifer in September.

Bies could not be reached for comment this week.

Employee Artur Margaryan, away on vacation at the time the plant closed, said he hopes the plant does stay afloat. "That's the job I love," he said.

Crossworks Manufacturing, a cutting and polishing plant owned by the HRA Group of Companies and now the only operating plant of its kind left in Yellowknife, said it plans to double its current staff of 11 next year.

In addition, former diamond trader Gary Barnett of New York City – new co-owner of the former Laurelton Diamonds plant – said he hopes to increase the staff at his plant, which stood at approximately 25 when the plant closed under former owner Tiffany and Co. in February. If Arslanian fails to rise again, and "If I can't get anything like I want (in the diamond and polishing industry), I'm gonna look for another job," said Margaryan.

Crossworks would be open to hiring Arslanian employees, but they would have to be trained in Crossworks cutting and polishing methods, said Dylan Dix, worldwide marketing director for HRA.

"I think there are ways in which we could allow these people to continue to be up North, but it's a developed concept that would include the GNWT being on-side with us," said Dix.

Dix, like Basal, plans to enter into talks with the GNWT on how to improve the territorial government's diamond policy, but was unwilling to go into any detail on that or his training ideas.

"There's lots of things that could happen," said Dix. "There's lots of ideas I have. It's just that so much of it is in a germinal stage that it would be hard for me to really to talk in any depth."