A ceremony will be held on Sept. 20 to celebrate the official opening of Gahcho Kué, the territory’s fourth diamond mine.
Special guests, dignitaries and community partners will be flown to the site roughly 280 kilometers northeast of Yellowknife where they’ll get the chance to visit the open pit, process plant and main accommodation complex.
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Earlier this month, De Beers Canada and Mountain Province Diamonds announced that the mine had already started producing diamonds and that it was expected to reach a commercial level of production in early 2017.
De Beers owns 51 per cent of Gahcho Kué while Mountain Province Diamonds owns the other 49 per cent.
Once fully operational, the mine is expected to have a steady workforce of around 500 people and produce an average of 4.5 million carats per year over the life of the mine.
Officials are confident Gahcho Kué – an open-pit mine – will be much more successful than the shuttered Snap Lake mine, which was long plagued by water issues and costs associated with operating underground.
Last year, De Beers was forced to shut down production at Snap Lake roughly 90 kilometers from where Gahcho Kué is set to open.
