Canada Mines to Add $1 Bln to De Beers' Revenues

De Beers directors will be asked in May to approve funds to develop the first of its three planned mines in Canada that should add $1 billion to group revenues within 10 years, Managing Director Gary Ralfe said today (Wednesday).

"We have the potential by the year 2015 of mining an additional $1 billion of diamonds a year from these Canadian projects," Ralfe told delegates at an Africa mining conference in Cape Town.

"We hope shortly to have board approval for the development of an underground mine in the Northwest Territories of Canada at a place called Snap Lake. This should give us new experience in new climatic conditions and will be a precursor we hope of other new projects like Victor and Gahcho Kue," Ralfe said.

Company spokeswoman Nicola Wilson said Snap Lake was expected to produce its first diamonds in 2007, with construction on the Victor project due to start in next year. The operating permit for Victor was likely to be awarded early this year and production could come on stream in 2008.

She said the technical investigation into Gahcho Kue was nearly complete and environmental and detailed engineering assessments would follow shortly after.