TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Vancouver-based Stornoway Diamond Corp has filed a notice of intent for its Renard diamond project in north-central Quebec, which marked the initial step in the permitting process for the mine.

The process is expected to take between 18 and 24 months, Stornoway said on Friday.

Stornoway owns 50% of the Renard project and the balance is held by the Quebec government's Soquem.

The notice of intent is meant to give the provincial administrator of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, which is the environmental protection regulator under which the project falls, a description of the nature and scope of the project so as to allow her to provide a directive for a subsequent social and environmental impact assessment.

The project also falls under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, which means that a federal assessment must also be completed.

After the provincial and federal administrators have given their approvals , final mine permits will be sought from the relevant authorities at provincial and federal level.

The notice of intent  describes a combined open pit and underground mining operation at Renard, with a production rate of between 5 000 t/d and 7 000 t/d and a potential mine life of 25 years, based on the totality of mineral resources identified to date.

A revised preliminary assessment on the project, based on a recently updated mineral resource estimate, is expected to be completed by the end of the current quarter, Stornoway said.

The new study will incorporate a revised conceptual mine plan, updated capital and operating costs, and revised estimates of project economics.

Stornoway announced in December that the total indicated mineral resource at Renard had increased 228%, to 23-million carats, while inferred resources were up 195%, to 13,3-million carats, compared with previous estimates published a year earlier.

Shares in the company gained 2% on Friday, to C$0,51 apiece by 15:59 in Toronto.

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