Maria Canton
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 06/99) - The discovery that the Leslie kimberlite pipe will not be economically viable has dealt a major blow to BHP's Ekati mine, says a senior environmental specialist for the company.

Permitted in 1995 to mine five pipes -- Panda, Koala, Misery, Fox and Leslie -- BHP is now in the midst of a review process that they hope will allow them to mine three new pipes.

"Because Leslie fell through, we need these three other pipes to make up for it," says Chris Hanks.

"This has a significant effect on how long we'll be in the North."

Hanks says if additional resources aren't brought on, operations at BHP will be complete in about 13 years.

Leslie is deemed unusable because the quality of diamonds found in the top two-thirds of the pipe are not economically viable, given the current market conditions surrounding diamond quality.

Hanks says knocking 10 years off the life of the mine will put a significant number of people out of work and stop the infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars into the NWT economy.

Hanks says BHP is the biggest employer in the NWT, outside of the government, and says it is unfortunate this has happened.

"We certainly didn't plan it this way," says Hanks.

"But our proposal for the new pipes is before the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board and we're allowing time for the review process."

According to Louie Azzolini, an environmental assessment officer for the board, BHP's application is currently under review and the process will take more than a year.

"If the issues are dealt with effectively, we're looking at about 15 months for the assessment process to be complete," he says.

BHP is hoping to begin construction on a 19-kilometre, all-weather road north of the main site to one of the new pipes by 2001.

Hanks says BHP is a little surprised at the time the review process will take, given the extensive panel review they underwent a few years ago.

"We anticipated it being a matter of screening by federal agencies and the review board," he says.

"Given the time it will take, we can't afford to wait on submitting new proposals."

The proposed pipes are named Sable, Pigeon and Beartooth.