JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Diamond group De Beers has idled its Snap Lake mine, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, with immediate effect, as the gains made by the “challenging” orebody failed to offset difficult market conditions.
The group would continue environmental monitoring and work required under the mine's permits during the care and maintenance period, with an evaluation planned over the next year to determine the mine’s viability.
Following a review of the underground operation, 120 employees would now embark on the one- to nine-month production stoppage and closure and maintenance work, with 70 workers selected to maintain the mine during the care and maintenance phase.
While 41 employees had been transferred to De Beers' Gahcho Kué diamond project, 80 km east of Snap Lake, where another 60 workers could be positioned next year, 434 employees would be retrenched from the mine that started production in 2008.
"The men and women at Snap Lake have put enormous effort into this challenging orebody over many years, but even the gains made this year are not enough to overcome the market conditions and put us in a profitable position,” explained De Beers Canada CEO Kim Truter.
The 1.4-million-carat-a-year Snap Lake mine was De Beers’ first mine outside Africa, with its second Canadian mine, Victor mine, in Northern Ontario, also having started operations in 2008.
The prospective Gahcho Kué project, a 51:49 joint venture between De Beers and Mountain Province Diamonds, was expected to start operations in the second half of 2016.