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De Beers Drills in Ontario May.2000
De Beers’ Monopros has proceeded to the bulk sampling stage at its
project near Attawapiskat in the James Bay area of northern Ontario. The
property, owned and developed solely by Monopros, contains 18 kimberlites, one
of which, "Victor," is being tested.
According to Richard Molyneux, the new president of De Beers Canada—replacing
George Burne, who retired in January—the site would be easier to mine than the
company’s Mountain Province project in the Northwest Territories, for several
reasons. Although the pipes are situated in a bog-like terrain that would
require drainage, they are not underwater, so environmental contamination issues
would not be an issue. Also the Ontario government is seen as being more
compliant regulatory speaking, than that of the Northwest Territories. In
addition, the pipes, unlike those at Mountain Province, do not contain granite
and will require less extensive drilling and processing.
If the site ever proceeds to the mine stage, Molyneux says he may propose an
equity type of agreement with native groups as opposed to the type of lump-sum
socio-economic agreements negotiated in the Northwest Territories.
"Those are big projects with numbers that have blown expectations way
out of proportion," he says. Molyneux is a geologist by training, and was
general manager at Central Mines in Kimberly before moving to Canada. He joined De
Beers as an exploration geologist in 1971.v |
