A planned winter program for the Victor diamond project in northern Ontario may be postponed if
Site work has been on hold since the end of July, when leadership of the First Nation community unilaterally decided to cancel a memorandum of understanding with De Beers, which had been in place since November 1999. The MOU provided the framework for community participation and job creation as the project moves through exploration to feasibility.
In a new release from the Attawapiskat First Nation in July, acting chief Thomas Tookate stated: “We haven’t been properly served by this MOU to date since we haven’t put the real issues on the table with De Beers or government: our treaty and aboriginal rights.”
The council terminated the agreement with De Beers and put discussions on hold for a 2-month period so that it could conduct its own internal review of the project and evaluate the impact it would have on treaty rights.
The Victor project is 90 km west of Attawapiskat, a Cree community of 1,600 members along the coast of James Bay. The project lies in the traditional lands of the Attawapiskat First Nation.
The Victor project centres on a cluster of 16 kimberlite bodies De Beers discovered in 1988-89. All but one proved to be diamondiferous based on initial drill-test samples of 100 kg or more from each of the pipes. Distracted by the discovery of economic kimberlite farther north in the Arctic region of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, De Beers waited until 1997 to revisit the Attawapiskat cluster. Further small test samples were collected using a portable reverse-circulation (RC) rig.
Encouraged by the results, De Beers returned in 1998-1999 and collected more than 600 tonnes of sample from Victor kimberlite through large-diameter RC drilling and surface trenching. Victor covers a surface area of 17 hectares and is the largest kimberlite in the Attawapiskat cluster. It consists of two pipes that coalesce at surface.
An 80-man exploration camp and modular dense-media-separation processing plant were constructed on-site, and in late 1999 De Beers began a major bulk sampling drilling and surface sampling program, which was carried through into 2001.
In total, 3,788 carats of diamonds were recovered from 10,042 tonnes of processed kimberlite, for an implied average grade 0.38 carat per tonne. The parcel was valued at more than $1.5 million, giving a value of $405 per carat.
Victor is a complex multi-phase beast exhibiting a highly variable grade, with specific areas of high grade, medium grade, low grade, and very low grade. De Beers has modeled a US$100-per-tonne value for Victor, which, based on further delineation drilling, is now estimated to contain an overall resource of just over 25 million tonnes.
A desktop study delivered in late 2001 identified a host of geotechnical hurdles the project needs to clear before moving forward through feasibility studies. Water management, ground water disposal and treatment, site access and logistics, and project costs are all being addressed in a prefeasibility study due for completion early next year.
With a mandate from the community to resume discussions, the leadership of the Attawapiskat First Nation met with representatives from De Beers Canada on Sept. 20 to begin negotiating an interim environmental and benefits package to cover a planned winter program at Victor.
During the initial 5-hour meeting, De Beers said members of the First Nation proposed a range of issues that are well outside the necessary scope of a winter program and that, as a result, negotiations are likely to extend beyond the planned dates for the start of this work.
Deadlines
“Right from the beginning of the two-month delay, we have made very clear to the chief and council of the Attawapiskat First Nation the nature of the tight deadlines we are faced with for the winter program,” said Jonathan Fowler, De Beers’ manager of aboriginal and environmental affairs in Canada. “These deadlines are related to permit applications, submissions to the De Beers board for project funding, and the logistics involved in preparing for the winter program. The extra time the First Nation is demanding will take us well past these critical deadlines. It appears we may have to postpone the planned winter work.”
The winter program will entail reopening the 110-km winter road that links Attawapiskat to the project site, as well as further geotechnical, hydrological and exploration drilling aimed at providing data for the feasibility study.
Last winter, De Beers carried out further test sampling on six other pipes, which indicated more work is necessary to establish the potential of these bodies.
In an advertised update of the project, placed in the Sept. 5 edition of the Wawatay News, De Beers says it needs to collect more information from the Tango kimberlite pipe, which lies close to Victor.
“We know very little about Tango, and, depending on what we learn about it this winter, there could be potential to extend the life of the proposed project,” the advertisement states.
De Beers Canada will be going before its board of directors in October to apply for funding for the winter program, which will be part of a funding application for a full feasibility study, to begin next year.
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