Mixed messages
Diavik, Aber scramble to counter newspaper story

Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Feb 16/00) - Officials of Diavik Diamond Mines Inc. were scrambling over the weekend to counteract a national newspaper report that Diavik talks have broken off.

"I think the Globe (and Mail) overstated things," said Diavik spokesperson Tom Hoefer. "We finished talks on Friday and the decision was made to continue them this week."

Under the headline "Diavik talks break off," The Globe and Mail's Saturday Report on Business reported, "A spokesperson for the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs said talks that began in Calgary Thursday broke off yesterday after Diavik failed to agree on the key issue of a $180 million security bond."

Hoefer said negotiations resumed Monday in Calgary.

In the first half hour of trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange Monday, shares in Aber Resources, the junior partner in the Diavik project, fell 50 cents below Friday's closing price of $8.75.

The opposite happened last May, when more than 10 daily papers across the country carried a story announcing the project had received conditional environmental approval. The price of Aber Stock jumped more than a dollar on that news, which DIAND scrambled to refute.

In an interview late Friday, Joe Handley, who has been assigned responsibility for the GNWT's involvement with Diavik, said talks in Calgary had "finished for the week."

Negotiators worked on the agreement, which will formalize monitoring and reclamation of the proposed diamond mine, through the two previous weekends.

On Sunday Diavik sent out a press release entitled Environmental Agreement Talks Continue.

"Negotiations are continuing in a concerted effort to reach agreement on the environmental agreement for the Diavik Diamond Project," the company stated in the release.

Aber issued the same press release Monday. Calls to Diavik were not returned by deadline.