In the midst of a vast Arctic tundra is, according to De Beers Canada, a diamond in the rough.
“We dig a big hole in the ground to get out little rocks,” heavy-duty mechanic Nathan Gully said. He’s one of 530 workers flown in to the remote camp, about 280 kilometres north of Yellowknife. An estimated 45 per cent of them are from the Northwest Territories.
“I do see a lot of northerners working here,” Gully said. “I think there’s about 13 people that are on the same plane as me from Hay River.”
A diamond-containing rock – kimberlite – was found at Gahcho Kue by Mountain Province Diamonds over 20 years ago. It’s the site of the first of what will be three pits, dug up over the next 12 years.
“We’re down about 30 metres now,” technical services manager and geologist Kevin Gostlin said. “Ultimately this will go down to about 300-metres depth.”
READ MORE: Quick Facts: Canada’s diamond industry
About 100-million tonnes of earth will be moved from the gaping hole. About 13-million tonnes are expected to contain kimberlite and, potentially, diamonds.
It takes only about an hour for the rocks to churn through the on-site processing plant.
“I’ve been in this business for the last 15 years or so and the first ore coming out of the plant is always exciting,” plant manager Serge Benoit said.
“We have some good quality product coming out of this mine.”
The mine is co-owned by De Beers Canada (51 per cent) and Mountain Province Diamonds (49 per cent).
Production officially began on Aug. 1, 2016, ahead of the grand-opening Sept 20.
It included a traditional indigenous “feed the fire” ceremony – burning tobacco offerings as a promise to tread lightly on the land owners suggest is sparkling with promise.
But it comes at a time of growing volatility in the diamond industry.
“Generally global demand at the moment is actually a little bit flat but, all things considered. If you look at all commodities, diamonds have actually fared very, very well,” Kim Truter, CEO of De Beers Canada, said Tuesday.
READ MORE: De Beers to open Gahcho Kue diamond mine in N.W.T.
The N.W.T lost two mines last year – De Beers’ Snap Lake diamond mine and North American Tungsten’s Cantung mine. De Beers blamed the closure of Snap Lake, which was just 80 kilometres northwest of Gahcho Kue, on market conditions as well as operational problems. Over 400 jobs were lost.
But owners are confident Gahcho Kue – a mine that cost them a billion dollars to construct – will be profitable.
“I can tell you that here we are nearly at the end of September and we’re already way ahead of our budgets.”
The mine is expected to inject over $6.7 billion into the Canadian economy over its life span. De Beers said it will take careful consideration not to oversupply the market. It expects to mine about 4.5 million carats at Gahcho Kue annually.
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