Photo by: Reuters
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board has approved a pioneer land use permit for the Gahcho Kué diamond mine, in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
Joint venture (JV) partners De Beers Canada and Mountain Province Diamonds on Tuesday announced that the permit would allow land-based site works to start in preparation for deliveries planned for the 2014 winter road season.
The planned pioneer site works would conform to the water use and waste disposal terms of the existing Type B water licence for the Gahcho Kué project.
Gahcho Kué would employ nearly 700 people during the two years of construction and close to 400 people over its expected 11-year mine life.
During this time, the operation would mine 31-million tonnes of ore containing about 49-million carats. These carats include an estimate of carats recovered below the bottom cutoff of the plant and, therefore, differ by a small amount to those reported in the 2013 Anglo American annual report.
Gahcho Kué is a JV between Anglo American's De Beers, which owns 51%, and Mountain Province Diamonds, which owns the balance, and is located 280 km north-east of Yellowknife.
The JV is also currently updating the 2010 feasibility study and expects to announce the results of an optimisation study early in the New Year.