warrior Joanathan Fowler. Jonathan goes back to the Monopros( why be
upfront and call your exploration arm De Beers when you can use the
name Monopros) days when he headed up De Beers exploration office in
Thunder Bay. Talk about a hardship post in the city of failure. I
understand, this will be Jonathan's last Attawapiskat party. Jonathan
enjoyed a few happy meetings with KI folk back in the days when De
Beers and Platinex had a collaboration going on community consultation
in KI. De Beers sampled the KI lands but withdrew following the
declaration of the moratorium.
Insiders will recall that De Beers funded the October 2005 meeting
which resulted in Chief Donny Morris saying "what part of No doesn't
Ontario understand" and a moratorium declaration by a number of far
north communities. The De Beers meeting with Far North Chiefs back in
05 set the stage for what followed. Classic unintended consequence.
Conspiracy theorists have floated the idea that De Beers deliberately
provoked the moratorium to "sterilize" the area for competitors. De
Beers are smart ( the Microsoft of mining) but not that smart. Let's
remember a lunatic found the diamonds in the NWT while they were stuck
at Blackwater Lake. Too clever by half.
De Beers to Open Snap Lake, Victor Diamond Mines
De Beers Canada will open the Snap Lake diamond mine July 25, and the
Victor diamond mine July 26. Snap Lake will become the first De Beers
mine outside of southern Africa, employ 560 people, and will have an
annual production rate of 1.4 million carats. Victor will employee 400
people during production and will have an annual production rate of
600,000 carats.
