Thorunn Howatt
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 15/01) - Yellowknife's Connors Drilling Ltd. is sparkling during the year of its diamond anniversary.

"We started with old machines pulled by donkeys," said 26-year employee and shop superintendent, Tony Agtarap of the 75-year-old company.

Connors Drilling Ltd. field superintendent, Rick Guile, shows off a diamond drill used in the Yellowknife area. - Thorunn Howatt/NNSL photo

Connors was started up with four people in 1926 by T.C. Connors in Nelson, British Columbia. It now employs about 500 in the Northwest Territories and South America.

"We decide if it's feasible to mine in an area and we also manufacture drills."

The company hasn't seen all good times though.

"We did a lot of drilling for Con before. We did a lot of drilling for Giant," said Connors' field superintendent Rick Guile.

He explained that Connors equipment had been at the gold mine site for 20 years. But after gold prices fell and Miramar dropped exploration activities, the future looked bleak until diamonds were discovered north of Yellowknife.

"At this point our only job is for BHP Billiton, Ekati," he said but added, "We've been down drilling for Winspear -- that's DeBeers at Snap Lake."