SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Alex Debogorski, star of the hit show Ice Road Truckers, wants to go from driving trucks for diamond mines to producing diamonds himself.

Ice Road Truckers star Alex Debogorski hopes to drill for diamonds in Drybones Bay. - NNSL file photo

The reality TV star has applied to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board for a land-use permit to drill for diamonds in the Drybones Bay area of Great Slave Lake, approximately 50 km south of Yellowknife.

Debogorski said he's had an interest in prospecting since the 1970s.

"I got my B.C. prospector's licence and staked my first claim in 1976 and I got my NWT licence in 1977," said Debogorski. "I don't stake much, but I've always had an interest in it and have done drilling before."

He said he staked the claim on the Drybones Bay site in the mid-2000s and has to do work on the property if he wants to keep the claim.

When asked if he needs the money, Debogorski was coy.

"Some have accused me of being opportunistic, which makes me laugh. Of course I'm being opportunistic and want to make money and find a mine. Everybody is into making dollars," Debogorski said with a laugh. "When you have 11 children you always have money problems."

But the idea of developing the land isn't sitting well with the Yellowknives Dene who hold an unsettled claim on the land and say the area is sacred as there are burial sites there.

Chief Ed Sangris said, "We are adamantly opposed to any development of this site. With the epidemic of 1929, a lot of our ancestors were buried where they dropped on that land.

"We have mines to the north of us, the lake south of us, and our neighbours to the west and we feel boxed in. It's the last place where we can continue to hunt and trap muskrat and beaver. We go there to teach our children our traditions," said Sangris. "If it wasn't such a significant area we could probably come to an agreement."

Debogorski said he doesn't want to upset anybody or be disrespectful to historical sites in the area.

"I don't need to piss off the Sangrises. Yellowknife is a small town. I live with them, I see them all the time," he said.

"I support First Nations groups 100 per cent in their battle with the federal government (in land claims negotiations). They do what they have to do and I do what I have to do," he said.

Sangris also pointed to previous development of the area by Snowfield Development Corp. that was controversial.

"Some blame lies with Snowfield who burned the area down and put a truck through the ice. We had to re-do the graveyard," said Sangris.

In 2007 Snowfield was fined $500 for setting a fire at Drybones Bay near their exploration site. The blaze burned nearly 400 hectares of forest and damaged graveyards belonging to the Akaitcho Dene.

Sangris did not say what steps the First Nation would be willing to take to fight development of the area, but did say,

"I'm keeping our options open."

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