Tahera Diamond to suspend mining at Jericho site
Last Updated: Thursday, January 24, 2008 | 5:59 PM CT
CBC News
Tahera Diamond Corp., which went into creditor protection last week, said it will suspend mining at its Jericho mine in Nunavut in two weeks.
The company said late Wednesday that the halt will allow it to save cash and fuel while it works on a restructuring plan. Once mining is stopped, ore processing and diamond recovery are expected to continue for roughly two months or until high-grade ore supplies run out.
"A concentrated effort is being made with respect to mining over the next two weeks to maximize high-grade ore stockpiles," the company said.
About 35 of the approximately 100 people currently working at the mine are Inuit. The mine is located about 360 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay, in the Kitikmeot region in western Nunavut. It began operating in early 2006 and officially opened in August that year.
An Ontario Superior Court judged granted Tahera protection from its creditors on Jan. 16. The company said at that time that it didn't have enough money for its 2008 winter road resupply.
The Jericho mine, which is Tahera's primary asset, is the first and only mine operating in Nunavut.
Territorial government officials said they were disappointed with the news, given that upwards of 30 per cent of the mine's workforce could lose their jobs as a result.
But Gordon MacKay, the government's director of minerals and petroleum resources, said be believes the workers won't have too much trouble finding other employment.
"Certainly any time individuals lose their jobs there's a personal impact," MacKay told CBC News on Thursday, adding "I expect the workers there at Tahera will quite easily find other opportunities in the region."
"There's a lot of economic activity going on in the Kitikmeot region and in the Northwest Territories, so I'm confident that this won't be too serious a problem."
MacKay said Newmont Mining Corp. and Zinifex Ltd. are getting closer to opening a mine in the same region, and numerous exploration companies are setting up camps in the territory.
