De Beers Canada, a subsidiary of De Beers Consolidated Mines, has selected Toronto-based engineering firm AMEC as its construction management partner at the $300-million Snap Lake diamond project in the Northwest Territories.
AMEC will build the infrastructure needed to bring the mine on-stream as well as perform an optimization study. Snap Lake will be Canada’s first underground diamond mine, and the first mine to be developed to this stage by De Beers outside of South Africa. The optimization and design phases of the project, and the ongoing exploration program, will employ about 200 people in Vancouver, B.C., and Yellowknife, N.W.T.
Construction will include an underground mine, processing plant, a paste backfill system, living quarters, service complex, roads, airstrip and utilities. Work began earlier this year and is scheduled for completion in 2004.
AMEC has been involved with Snap Lake since 1998. It has conducted scoping and prefeasibility studies and, earlier this year, completed an advanced exploration program.
“We are happy to be working with De Beers on this project in the Canadian North,” says Peter Mason, AMEC’s chief executive.
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