A sparkling day ...

Rarely have I done a news story on the birth of a mine and then, ten years or so later, the death of a mine. I was up North in the James Bay Lowlands today to cover the 10th anniversary of the De Beers Victor mine, the first and only diamond mine in Ontario.

It is a success story in the sense that the company has spent billions of dollars to create the mine and run it -- but it has also earned billions more by recovering 7 million carats in diamonds. But the mine will soon be depleted and by this time next year, it will be shut down.
I was first here in 2008 when the mine officially opened and there was a lot of excitement. Hundreds of new jobs. Hundreds of millions provided to the First Nations. And so it went. For the past ten years the glitter of diamonds has provided wealth and comfort to so many people. I am on holidays this week, but I couldn't pass up the chance to visit the mine again to see how it has developed; now more than a thousand feet deep.

And so things change and all new mines eventually die. But before De Beers leaves this area it must leave the land in good shape. And so there was a tree planting ceremony to symbolize the fact that the company will continue to spend money on a massive land reclamation project. They event provided a tree sapling so I can plant my own tree.
Each visitor was also given a nice little chunk of Kimberlite ore. That's the type of volanic rock where diamonds are found.

That's a good thing. It means the company will be allowed to keep mining in other parts of Canada. Oh by the way, I chatted with De Beers Canada president and CEO Kim Truter today. He said the process will start again in a couple of years with a new project in Nunavut. I asked how much money would be spent and how long that mine would last.
Truter smiled and with his thick South African accent he said "It's early days my friend, early days."