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To: Greg R who wrote (1016)3/3/1999 3:29:00 PM
From: RBMac  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 2006
 
Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Mar 03/99) - The NWT Chamber of Commerce should prepare for what
is apt to be the next move against development, Doug Willy said.

Cumulative effects, more specifically the lack of cumulative effects data, is "the next
anti-development tool from the (environmentalists)," Willy said.

He made the comment during a brainstorming session Saturday at the NWT Chamber of
Commerce annual general meeting in Hay River.

Willy is not only an associate director of the NWT Chamber of Commerce, he is also
Diavik Diamond Mines' public and government relations manager.

The Diavik project is currently amid 10 days of technical hearings at the Explorer Hotel.

The hearings, part of the environmental assessment, are held by regulatory authorities
Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Department of Fisheries and
Oceans, Natural Resources Canada, Environment Canada and the GNWT and continue
through Friday.

It is anticipated the NWT Chamber of Commerce will publicly support the project today
or tomorrow at the Explorer. The chamber adopted a motion supporting Diavik Sunday
in Hay River.

The chamber's AGM weekend also included a Diavik update delivered by Willy.

Before the first potential tonne of ore has been mined, Diavik's owners have sunk about
$150 million in the project, Willy said.

By the end of 1998, $145 million was spent on the project and this year, $3 million will
be spent each month, he said.

In 1999, some $2 million will go to cover community consultation while $10 million will
be spent this year on environmental baseline studies.

"We've had over 250 meetings in the last three years," he said.

Willy also said government would be the mine's "single biggest earner" as it stands to
make $70 million a year in royalties.