Stephan Burnett
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sep 01/03) - The Laurelton diamond polishing plant located on Diamond Row, just north of the Yellowknife Airport, is now built with five veteran diamond polishers being brought in from Tanzania last Wednesday.

Plant manager Tom Raine says he expects another six diamond polishing veterans coming from India to arrive in Yellowknife this week.

These veteran diamond polishers will form the core group to train other personnel. Eventually, over the next decade, Laurelton hopes to have as many as 75 diamond polishers on site.

The plant cost $4-million plant to build, said Aber and Laurelton vice president Mike Ballantyne.

The operation has already hired a factory manager, an operations manager, a quality-control manager from Tiffany and Co. and a maintenance person.

Laurelton is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tiffany and Co.

In 1999, Aber and Tiffany signed an agreement whereby Aber agreed to supply Tiffany with $50 million in diamonds until 2009.

"Polishing diamonds is an industry that is highly competitive and has very low profit margins.

"The polishing factories here compete with low-cost operations in India, China and Hong Kong," said Ballantyne.

Laurelton's jewelry manufacturing joint venture with the Kitikmeot Corporation and the Behcho Ko could also be partially housed within the Laurelton facility. There will also be operations in Rae-Edzo and Cambridge Bay.

"It probably makes more sense for aboriginals to be involved in the manufacture of jewelry, which has potentially higher profit margins," said Ballantyne.

"We're very excited to have Tiffany's come north. They're a great addition to the Northern diamond industry and a huge benefit to the North," said Ballantyne.

Ballantyne explains, Tiffany and Co. and Aber Resources, which owns 40 per cent of Diavik, got together a number of months ago with the Kitikmeot Corporation and the Behcho Ko and jointly hired MVI Marketing Ltd. to do a feasibility study on the viability of setting up a jewelry manufacturing industry in the North.

After an extensive survey undertaken by MVI, the partners found there was a potential market.

The next step in the development of the joint venture is to do a test market study, said Keith Peterson, secretary treasurer with Kitikmeot Corporation.

"We'll get some diamonds and gold and gather some aboriginal motifs from artists in the Kitikmeot and the Dogrib folks in the NWT and take the concept from the paper design phase to the jewelry phase," said Peterson.

He plans to bring in people who have worked with diamonds and gold to train the Inuit and aboriginal artists in working with diamonds and gold.

The joint venture partners have examined which stores they expect to place the jewelry and expect the retail value of the jewelry to range from $400 to $600.

The test market phase is expected to be complete by the end of October.

The final step will be attempting to secure financing for a larger jewelry manufacturing operation.

"We have to analyze the results of how the test market went and try to secure financing.," said Peterson.

"We can't just do it on a hope and a prayer that people will buy. Diamonds aren't cheap nor is gold," said Peterson. Eventually, between 20 and 40 people could be employed in jewelry manufacturing joint venture.