Here is another article in todays star.. Two days in a row...ALl NWT but it still exposes Canada..
Today's Issue
Back Issues
October 27, 1998
The gritty reality of diamond mining
There's no glamour in the open pit
By Lisa Wright
Toronto Star Business Reporter
LAC DE GRAS, N.W.T. - Anything to do with diamonds sounds glamourous on the surface.
But dig a little deeper and you'll find a different story.
You start here, 200 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle and 300 kilometres northeast of the nearest Wal-Mart.
JIRI HERMANN FOR THE TORONTO STAR
ALL THAT GLITTERS: Canada's first diamond mine is in a polar desert, a very long way from the nearest jewelry store.
We're talking tundra, permafrost, caribou and bears - real grizzlies instead of the ones that plague the stock market. You made it here after accepting an invitation to the ''historic'' opening of Canada's first diamond mine.
Proud co-owners Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd., or BHP and Dia Met Minerals Ltd. invited about 150 guests to take a gander at the goods now that production is officially under way.
So you dress in layers as requested. You even buy brand-new work boots that you'll probably never have the occasion to wear again.
You're ready for anything.
But not even Bugs Bunny would wait around all day for a few measly carats.
Despite daydreams of walking away with free samples on the tour, the only time a diamond actually made an appearance was at the very end of a rather dull day.
And to top it off, they were under glass, in a locked case. It was hands off the merchandise all the way. It wouldn't have been such a letdown had there not been such a buildup.
(Mind you, this is a Toronto perspective, something that, despite the kind invitation, our Northern neighbours love to rub in whatever chance they get.)
''For those of you from Toronto, that white stuff you see out there is snow,'' was one attempt at comedy from a mine official during the bumpy bus ride around the site.
It all started at 7 a.m. when a few planeloads of politicians, business people and media landed at the Ekati mine site.
Many had never ventured this far north in their lives. Raw beauty, breathtaking scenery and big rocks (the diamond kind) were on everyone's minds.
There were rocks all right. Loads of them. Visitors were treated to an endless eyefull of dirt, rocks and soot - and one hole big enough to, well, drive a dozen trucks through.
Whether it's for nickel, gold or diamonds, open-pit mining is really just a dirty - and often brutal - job that has all the glamour you'd expect of a construction site. The only pretty part is what winds up in the jewelry store.
The Lac de Gras region, meanwhile, is considered a polar desert. Total precipitation is less than 400 millimetres per year. The ground is permanently frozen to a depth of 250 metres and under snow for eight months a year.
Sometimes the pit conditions are so bad - minus 40 degrees Celsius - that the miners can't do any digging for days. But they've been building a stockpile, so there's always indoor work.
Over the 25-year life of the mine, BHP has agreed to hire 70 per cent of the roughly 800 staff from the North, with about 30 per cent of those being aboriginal.
It's a rather isolated existence for the miners, who stay in the on-site dorms for three weeks straight, working 10 to 12 hours a day, and then get flown by the company to Yellowknife for a week of R & R.
They are reported to earn an average of $20 an hour, but they have to live by the rules. Alcohol is strictly forbidden. So is hunting, fishing and feeding wildlife.
Food is a very big deal. In a week, employees go through 240 kilograms of rice, 1,900 litres of milk, 130 cases of fruit juice and 400 kilograms of chicken. To keep fit and occupied they have access to squash courts, a workout centre, a gym and a games room.
The processing plant handles about 9,000 tonnes of black sooty ore called kimberlite per day. The pit where workers spend their days on monster hydraulic shovels digging up the diamond-rich ore is one kilometre wide and about 300 metres deep.
When you're in it, you can't believe that this is where wedding rings, earrings and bracelets come from.
The diamond recovery process includes several stages of crushing and scrubbing with water to release the stones. X-ray sorting then separates the diamonds from other heavy minerals.
The mine produces 10,000 carats a day - enough to fill a coffee can - but while the java was plentiful, the presence of precious gems was just plain scarce.
In fact, no one here actually touches the diamonds in the process. They're washed, weighed and packaged without human intervention.
It's meant to prevent temptation. Hands that work around diamonds all day apparently can get mighty itchy.
But not many people - staff included - would have a clue what to look for. You'd have to wade through about a tonne of kimberlite to get your hands on one carat.
Security officials were quick to point out that most people wouldn't recognize a diamond in the rough if they tripped over it.
The chances of scooping up a gem from all of the dirt on the processing plant conveyor belts is about as likely as winning the lottery.
So why are there only a couple dozen people in the massive plant at a time, even though BHP officials boasted it is officially the largest building in the Northwest Territories?
And why were visitors warned not to touch anything in the processing plant, and then followed the whole time by several cameras and one annoying camera man?
''We don't take chances,'' explains seasoned security manager Mike Loper, a retired U.S. military police colonel who is a veteran at sniffing out the undesirables at BHP's mines around the world.
Graham Nicholls, BHP's external affairs manager, did his level best to make the tour as interesting as possible. Then the afternoon was filled with the requisite speeches from government guests, including federal Natural Resources Minister Ralph Goodale and Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Jane Stewart.
There was a native elder on hand to bless the mine site so it would be safe from accidents (and maybe missed production quotas?) and a plaque unveiling.
Then, finally, they pulled the cover off a display case that contained a rather modest diamond collection.
So much for all the talk about the mystery of diamonds.
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