Okalik visits Puerto Rico diamond plant
Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services
Iqaluit (Apr 16/01) - With Tahera Corp.'s Jericho diamond resource entering the permitting phase, Nunavut is sizing up the secondary diamond business.
Last Wednesday, Premier Paul Okalik, Sustainable Development Minister Olayuk Akesuk, two assistants, as well as NG minerals director, Kitikmeot Inuit Association president Charlie Evalik, and a federal government representative, flew to Lazare Kaplan International's Puerto Rico diamond polishing factory.
"It was at the invitation of Tahera and Lazare Kaplan that government be involved," GN press secretary Annette Bourgeois said. Costs for GN participants will be covered by the territorial government.
"Tahera has been working with Lazare Kaplan," she said.
The one-day tour focused on training at the plant and their potential application at the proposed Jericho diamond mine.
New York-based Lazare Kaplan cuts, polishes and sells diamonds. The firm's shares trade on the American Stock Exchange. The Nunavut group also stopped in New York to meet with company executives.
"Seeking out opportunities and developing these relationships is a key to growth of the mining sector in Nunavut," Okalik said in a statement.
GN estimates mining companies spent $40 million in Nunavut last year.
Bourgeois adds the NG certainly has not ruled out visiting Yellowknife's value-added diamond sector. Yellowknife has three operating diamond cutting and polishing plants.
Tahera is aiming to take the small, land-based diamond-bearing kimberlite pipe to production in 2003.
A feasibility study completed in June 2000 confirmed Jericho, located near Contwoyto Lake in the Kitikmeot, is "economically robust" with potential diamond production of about three million carats over at least eight years.
Tahera is aiming to receive regulatory approval for Jericho this year.
The Toronto-based company submitted a revised project proposal and a draft environmental impact statement to the regulatory authorities earlier this year. The statement is a comprehensive environmental study that assesses the environmental and socio-economic affects of the proposed project.
The Nunavut Impact Review Board, the lead agency responsible for environmental assessments in Nunavut, consulted with stakeholders and recommended to Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Robert Nault the Jericho diamond project undergo a board review under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.
The review process will provide all stakeholders with the opportunity to comment on the draft environmental impact statement, according to Tahera. Federal departments with jurisdictional responsibility for authorizing the project concur with the recommendation to proceed with a formal Nunavut Impact Review Board review.
