The road has been cleared for Canada’s latest diamond mine, with South African gem giant De Beers giving its final go-ahead for the C$636 million Snap Lake project.
In the planning and development stages for several years, the mine is scheduled to start production in 2007, targeting about 1.5 million carats a year once it achieves peak output.
It will be De Beers’ first diamond mine outside of Africa and the third in the Northwest Territories, joining Diavik and Ekati.
But Tahera Diamond will actually be the third to come on line, assuming its Jericho mine in Nunavut Territory meets a 2006 start-up date.
The board of De Beers also gave preliminary approval for the proposed Victor diamond mine, a C$982 million project in northern Ontario.
Victor still needs Canadian government approval of an environmental assessment.
De Beers annual review, made public in April, said the company is aiming to produce diamonds worth US$1 billion from its Canadian mines in 2015.
Snap Lake involved complex impact and benefit agreements with four aboriginal groups in the area plus environmental, socio-economic and secondary diamond industry agreements with the Northwest Territories government.
Northwest Territories Resources Minister Brendan Bell praised De Beers last year for “making a significant and meaningful contribution” to the territories “through training and development, business opportunities and on-going social investment.”
He said the deals reaffirmed the Northwest Territories government’s position that sustainable development of northern resources “is essential to the long term economic, cultural well being of all NWT residents.”
—Gary Park
