De Beers plans full operation by 2004
Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Feb 05/01) - The permitting of a third diamond mine in the NWT has begun.
De Beers Canada, which is 100 per cent owner of the Snap Lake deposit on the Camsell Lake property, filed water licence and land-use applications with the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board Friday.
"This is a major milestone for De Beers in Canada and we are committed to working diligently to move this project through the permitting process as quickly as practical," De Beers Canada president and CEO Richard Molyneux said.
De Beers is hoping to complete the permitting phase by the end of third-quarter 2002. Mine construction is expected to take about 15 months with commissioning in fourth-quarter 2003 and first- quarter 2004. The mine is set to be fully operational in second quarter 2004.
De Beers, which has been exploring in the NWT for 30 years, plans to extract Snap Lake's diamond-bearing kimberlite via underground mining. An earlier plan which included some open pit mining has been abandoned. By cancelling the open pit part of the plan, De Beers gives up cheaper, faster ore generation. But the project presumably becomes less dramatic from an environmental and permitting perspective.
Molyneux said because the entire operation will be underground, the environmental implications are different and "should make the permitting process enormously simple." The NWT's other two diamond mines were permitted federally.
Last week, De Beers completed full acquisition of Snap Lake with the $173-million deal with Aber Diamond Corp. which owned 32 per cent of Snap Lake. Last year, De Beers acquired 68 per cent of Snap Lake when it bought Winspear Diamonds for $305 million.
Winspear estimated it would cost about $260 million to build the mine but Molyneux suggested the price tag will expand.
"There will be some design changes.
"I think we will be putting some fairly sophisticated security systems in place (which were) not likely in the previous design," he said.
De Beers is currently evaluating three 2,000-tonne bulk samples taken last year. Additional sampling is planned this year.
The focus of this year's underground work will be less about grade and more about geology, he adds. De Beers is interested in examining the different types of rock around the kimberlite.
As well as Snap Lake, De Beers has high hopes for its Victor kimberlite pipe in Northern Ontario near James Bay.
Molyneux said he is hoping to get some "friendly competition" going between Snap Lake and Victor to see which project can make it to production first.
For now it appears, Snap Lake will be first, but Victor could be close behind, when it comes to going operational.
