De Beers’ Victor mired in red tape

De Beers is reassessing the proposed development schedule for the advanced-stage Victor diamond project in northern Ontario while it awaits notification from the federal government regarding scoping requirements for the environmental assessment study.

De Beers has been working with the provincial and federal authorities over the past 18 months to move the permitting process forward.

“The project team is disappointed the project will be delayed and the winter program will not take place as planned,” Jeremy Wyeth, general manager of the Victor project, states in the company’s fall newsletter.

De Beers is still anticipating it will have operating permits in hand by mid-2004, which would put the project on the road to production at the end of 2007 (pending a positive feasibility study).

An environmental prospectus of the Victor project was first submitted to federal authorities in May 2002; then an updated and more detailed project description was presented in March 2003, followed by a preliminary draft environmental assessment (EA) in June; and in November, at the request of Natural Resources Canada, an updated EA was provided. On Dec. 12, De Beers received a draft scoping document for the EA, which has been published and is open for public comment and consultation until Jan. 23, after which a final scoping document will be drafted. “We’re not too sure when to expect that,” says De Beers spokesperson Linda Dorrington. “We’re just hoping there is no delay in that process.”

The wholly owned project is in the James Bay Lowlands of northern Ontario, 90 km west of the coastal community of Attawapiskat. De Beers spent the past year completing a final feasibility study of an open-pit mine on the Victor kimberlite, one of 18 kimberlite pipes found on the property (all but two of the pipes are diamondiferous). No details or conclusions of the study have been disclosed. An environmental prospectus prepared by AMEC in May 2002 revealed that De Beers has been examining the economics of an open-pit operation and an 8,500-tonne-per-day capacity kimberlite processing plant. The mine life is projected to be at least 10 years, though the occurrence of other diamond-bearing pipes in the area has the potential to extend that.

Victor is a complex, multi-phase kimberlite highly variable in diamond grade. The Victor body consists of two pipes that coalesce at surface and cover an area measuring 16 hectares. A third lobe has recently been discovered, and its extent is still being defined. De Beers has established a revenue value of $94 per tonne for Victor. The 2002 AMEC environmental prospectus was based on an open-pit mine plan containing a kimberlite resource of 25 million tonnes to a depth of 200 metres, with the potential for an additional 3 million tonnes.

In a recent article in the Timmins Daily Press, Victor’s mine manager, Tony George, was quoted as saying the company will mine more than 29 million tonnes of ore containing an estimated 6 million carats of diamonds over a 12-year mine life. De Beers has spent $85 million to date at Victor, including $25 million on feasibility studies. Capital costs are estimated at $825 million, and once in production, the mine will provide jobs for about 400 people.

Last winter, De Beers conducted delineation drilling on three other kimberlites, namely Tango Extension, Delta and India. In addition, a 360-tonne bulk sample was collected from three large-diameter holes drilled into the Tango Extension kimberlite. Situated 12 km from the Victor camp, Tango Extension is the closest of the three kimberlites.