For immediate release
November 29, 2005
MEDIA RELEASE
DE BEERS CANADA FILES PERMIT APPLICATION FOR THIRD DIAMOND MINE
November 29, 2005 – Yellowknife, NWT – De Beers Canada Inc. is pleased to announce that it has filed an application with the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board for the permits required to construct and operate a mine at Gahcho Kué. The Gahcho Kué project is a joint venture between De Beers Canada (51%), Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. (44.1%) and Camphor Ventures (4.9%).
Gahcho Kué is located on Kennady Lake in the Northwest Territories, approximately 300 kilometers northeast of Yellowknife. It is 90 kilometers east of Snap Lake, where De Beers’ first Canadian diamond mine is currently under construction.
As currently proposed, the Gahcho Kué project will be an open pit mine, with an estimated resource of 31 million tonnes. Capital costs to construct the mine are estimated at C$ 825 million. It will employ up to 600 people during the peak of its three year construction period and close to 400 people during the operations phase of the mine. The project is expected to have a life of twenty years from start of construction to closure. It will produce an average of 3 million carats annually over fifteen years of operations.
“Advancing this project is consistent with our strategy of maintaining a pipeline of projects to meet increasing global demand as well as contributing to the sustainability of the Canadian diamond industry,” said Richard Molyneux, President and CEO of De Beers Canada Inc. “Gahcho Kué is evidence of the importance we attach to partnerships with Canadian exploration companies as a winning formula for growing the diamond industry in this country.”
The company anticipates that the project application will be referred to the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board for an Environmental Assessment.
“We have an excellent track record with the design and development of Snap Lake, and we are incorporating our learning from Snap Lake into the design and development of Gahcho Kué,” said John McConnell, Vice President - NWT Projects. “We welcome the thorough evaluation that an Environmental Assessment will provide, and the opportunity to make any improvements to this project that may be identified in the process.”
De Beers is investing approximately $2 billion over the next three years in the Canadian diamond industry. De Beers Canada’s first diamond mine is the Snap Lake mine in the NWT, currently under construction and scheduled to open in 2007. The Victor Project, which received approval for its environmental assessments earlier this fall, will commence construction early in the new year and will be in production by the end of 2008.
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