De Beers Canada Releases Snap Lake Socio-Economic Report

De Beers Canada Inc. has released its 2005 Snap Lake Socio-Economic Report. The Annual Report summarizes the initiatives taken by De Beers Canada in 2005 for the Construction Phase of the Snap Lake Project.

Despite an ever tightening labor market, De Beers and its contractors reached an average of 41 percent NWT (Northwest Territories) resident employment during 2005, just exceeding the target of 40 percent, as outlined in the Socio-Economic Agreement. De Beers and its contractors hired 333 workers during May to December of 2005. In total, NWT residents comprised 44 percent of the new hires, while 25 percent of new hires were of Aboriginal descent.

"We've established Aboriginal employees as the highest hiring priority and we are seeing results," said Chantal Lavoie, vice president for NWT Projects. "Aboriginal employees made up 17 percent of the total workforce in 2005, and filled 13 percent of the management, professional and skilled jobs."

De Beers and its contractors provided an average of 41 positions to women. In total, 18 percent of the Snap Lake workforce was women and over 75 percent of the women employed were in management, professional or skilled occupations.

"Throughout 2005, significant effort was made by De Beers to ensure the involvement by NWT and Aboriginal businesses in the contracting and procurement processes," said Chantal Lavoie, vice president of NWT Projects.

"These efforts resulted in the company exceeding the 35 percent NWT purchase target for construction expenditures in 2005. NWT and Aboriginal businesses continue to play an important part in our project's success," she said.

As of December 15, 2005 De Beers had purchased $144,992,230 (US$128,039,765) in goods and services associated with the construction of Snap Lake. Of that expenditure, 58 percent or $84,080,865 (US$74,250,146) was spent with the NWT business community, and of that NWT Expenditure, 74 percent or $62,370,164 (US$55,077,856) was purchased with Aboriginal businesses.

The full report is available at www.debeerscanada.com. 

The Snap Lake Project is located 220 kilometers northeast of Yellowknife and will be the first diamond mine in Canada for De Beers. The Snap Lake Mine will provide employment for 500 during operations and will produce 1.5 million carats per year when in full production. Production will commence in October 2007.