TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Construction of the Gahcho Kué project, the world’s largest diamond mine currently under construction, located in Canada’s Northwest Territories, is more than 70% complete and construction remains within budget and on schedule for first production to start in the second half of 2016.
The TSX- and Nasdaq-listed company, which was developing the project in collaboration with 51%-partner and operator De Beers Canada, this week advised that detailed engineering and procurement were both complete and the process plant and truck maintenance buildings were on track to be enclosed by the end of October.
The safety performance at the C$859-million project also remained good, with no lost-time injuries over the past 18 months.
"Gahcho Kué continues to meet our lending group's tests-to-completion and further draw-downs against the company's $370-million project finance facility have been approved. We have drawn down $137-million against the facility and expect to have drawn down a total of $158-million by year-end," Mountain Province president and CEO Patrick Evans stated on Tuesday.
Staffing at Gahcho Kué had peaked at about 600 on-site employees and contractors and would start to decline in the months ahead as significant construction projects were completed. During production, there would be about 400 employees at Gahcho Kué.