De Beers to bring Gahcho Kue to feasibility (December 08, 2003)

Budgets have been approved for a full feasibility study at the Gahcho Kue (Kennady Lake) diamond property in the Northwest Territories. The project is being operated by De Beers Consolidated Mining on behalf of its joint venture with Mountain Province Diamonds (MPV-T) and Camphor Ventures (CFV-V).

Field work for the feasibility study, which is budgeted at $25 million, will start in January. The study will be done from a large fly-in camp supplied by Hercules aircraft, rather than by trucks on the Slave winter road.

Geotechnical drilling will help determine mining constraints, engineering design and environmental baseline studies. The project will entail de-watering lakes, and further geotechnical studies on de-watering will form part of the program.

Process plant and infrastructure designs will not proceed until after further permitting work. Mountain Province says it expects De Beers to come up with process designs similar to those drawn up for the Snap Lake project in the Northwest Territories and the Victor project in Ontario.

De Beers, a subsidiary of Anglo American (AAUK-Q), holds 51% of Gahcho Kue; Mountain Province has 44.1%, and Camphor, 4.9%.