Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Nov 08/99) - Environment Ministry approval in hand, Aber president and CEO Robert Gannicott said the company will now begin investigating additional financing sources.

Aber Resources is the Toronto-based junior mining company with a 40 per cent stake in the proposed Diavik diamond mine.

Aber has about $200 million in the bank and will need a total of about $520 million for its share of Diavik mine costs. The $200 million will see Aber through 2000 and most of 2001, Gannicott said.

With Environment Minister David Anderson announcing the Diavik project does not need further environmental review, Gannicott said the mood at the company's Toronto offices was more "relief" than celebration. Gannicott worked underground at Giant mine in Yellowknife from 1967-71. He then left Yellowknife to attend university and become a geologist.

Gannicott adds, the Diavik environmental review "deserved care and it got it."

He called Anderson's decision "clear and straightforward."

Late Wednesday afternoon, Environment Minister David Anderson gave the project the thumbs up.

Thursday, the company's stock closed $1 higher at $8.95.

Shares traded as high as $9.60. Volume, at about 950,000 shares, was well above the daily average of about 125,000 shares.

But, said TD Evergreen financial advisor Todd Ferguson, the stock still has a long way to go to get back to previous levels.

Aber's stock plummeted 40 per cent recently after a new cost estimate gave the project a $1.3-billion (plus or minus 15 per cent) price tag, up from $875 million.

The big jump in cost led Aber to close its Vancouver offices, putting 12 people out of work, and move all operations to Toronto to be closer to big financing sources.

The conclusion that "public concerns do not warrant further environmental assessment of this project by a review panel" was a major announcement, Ferguson adds.

"Some people thought this might have dragged on longer."

He said that the ministerial approval "takes away one source of concern" among investors.

"Investor attention will now focus on cost."

The environmental review started 18 months ago. Critics called for more review which would have delayed the project at least a year because of the short winter road season and the need to truck construction materials up the winter road.

Since 1994, some $170 million has been spent on the project. As of last week, Diavik Diamond Mines, the Rio Tinto subsidiary managing the project, has awarded about $20-million worth of construction tenders. Diavik's year 2000 construction tenders will total about $100 million, Diavik public affairs manager Tom Hoefer said.

Yet to be awarded is the lucrative earth-works tender, which includes construction of a runway. This multi-million dollar contract will likely go to a joint-venture involving a Northern firm or firms.