Company says it wants to do some polishing in the North
Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services
NNSL (Jun 23/99) - Nothing was put on paper, but Aber Resources favours cutting and polishing a "portion" of their share of diamonds from the proposed Diavik project, Resources, Wildlife and Economic Development Minister Stephen Kakfwi revealed Tuesday.
Kakfwi (left) and RWED deputy minister Joe Handley met with Aber officials Monday hoping to get the company to support supplying rough diamonds to Northern-based manufacturers.
The meeting followed the GNWT's recent announcement that it had postponed socio-economic agreement talks with Diavik Diamond Mines Inc.
The GNWT said it was not making any progress on getting Diavik Diamond Mines Inc. officials to commit to supplying rough diamonds to Northern-based producers.
Diavik Diamond Mines is a subsidiary of British mining giant Rio Tinto, 60 per cent owner of the Diavik project.
"They (Aber) have said that they want to polish a portion of diamonds in the North," Kakfwi said.
"They also said they will work with us to look at other value-added opportunities in addition to cutting and polishing," he said.
"We said we would work at looking at other industry incentives."
Kakfwi, who plans to meet with Aber officials again next month, said the message he heard on sorting was also encouraging.
Diamonds must be sorted not only for government royalty purposes but also for marketing.
Diamond sorting from the proposed Diavik diamond mine is expected to be more extensive than the sorting done here by BHP Diamonds, Kakfwi said.
Socio-economic agreement talks with Diavik Diamond Mines were postponed until Kakfwi could meet with Aber and Rio Tinto officials. Kakfwi will meet with Rio Tinto chairman Robert Wilson, July 5 in London.
The socio-economic agreement involves five aboriginal organizations, the GNWT and Diavik. It is an effort to maximize territorial employment and business opportunities and expected to address secondary industry and value-added opportunities and involve monitoring and mitigating community, cultural and social effects, Kakfwi said.
