Snap Lake Diamond Mine
Encyclopedia
The Snap Lake Diamond Mine is located about 220 km (136.7 mi) northeast of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
, and, according to De Beers
, was their first mine
outside Africa and Canada's first completely underground diamond mine.
Construction began with the opening of an access winter road in 2005. At the end of 2009, DeBeers had spent USD$1.4 billion dollars on construction and mine operation. Of that total, DeBeers spent USD$977 million with Northwest Territories-based contractors and suppliers, including USD$630 million with Aboriginal businesses or Joint Ventures.
The mine began commercial production on January 16, 2008 and was officially opened on July 25, 2008. In 2007, De Beers said they planned to employ 500 people, with 250 people working in the mine at any given moment. Lifetime of the mine is estimated to be 20 years. De Beers expects to produce 1.1 million tonne
s (1.2 million short tons) annually with 1.2 carats (240 mg) per metric ton.
The Snap Lake mine was featured in Ice Road Truckers
, a television series on The History Channel
. The Snap Lake mine was also featured on the Canadian Discovery channel show Daily Planet
as part of the special feature 'Daily Planet Goes North – More Ice for the Arctic'.
The mine is served by the Snap Lake Airport
.
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...
, and, according to De Beers
De Beers
De Beers is a family of companies that dominate the diamond, diamond mining, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. De Beers is active in every category of industrial diamond mining: open-pit, underground, large-scale alluvial, coastal and deep sea...
, was their first mine
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
outside Africa and Canada's first completely underground diamond mine.
Construction began with the opening of an access winter road in 2005. At the end of 2009, DeBeers had spent USD$1.4 billion dollars on construction and mine operation. Of that total, DeBeers spent USD$977 million with Northwest Territories-based contractors and suppliers, including USD$630 million with Aboriginal businesses or Joint Ventures.
The mine began commercial production on January 16, 2008 and was officially opened on July 25, 2008. In 2007, De Beers said they planned to employ 500 people, with 250 people working in the mine at any given moment. Lifetime of the mine is estimated to be 20 years. De Beers expects to produce 1.1 million tonne
Tonne
The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...
s (1.2 million short tons) annually with 1.2 carats (240 mg) per metric ton.
The Snap Lake mine was featured in Ice Road Truckers
Ice Road Truckers
Ice Road Truckers is a documentary-style reality television series that premiered on History on June 17, 2007.-History:In 2000, History aired a 46-minute episode titled "Ice Road Truckers" as part of the Suicide Missions series...
, a television series on The History Channel
The History Channel
History, formerly known as The History Channel, is an American-based international satellite and cable TV channel that broadcasts a variety of reality shows and documentary programs including those of fictional and non-fictional historical content, together with speculation about the future.-...
. The Snap Lake mine was also featured on the Canadian Discovery channel show Daily Planet
Daily Planet
The Daily Planet is a fictional broadsheet newspaper in the , appearing mostly in the stories of Superman. The building's original features were based upon the AT&T Huron Road Building in Cleveland, Ohio...
as part of the special feature 'Daily Planet Goes North – More Ice for the Arctic'.
The mine is served by the Snap Lake Airport
Snap Lake Airport
Snap Lake Airport is located near the Snap Lake Diamond Mine, Northwest Territories, Canada....
.
See also
- Ekati Diamond MineEkati Diamond MineThe EKATI Diamond Mine is Canada's first surface and underground diamond mine. It is located north-east of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and about south of the Arctic circle, near Lac de Gras. EKATI is a joint venture between BHP Billiton Canada Inc...
- Diavik Diamond MineDiavik Diamond MineThe Diavik Diamond Mine is a diamond mine in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada, about north of Yellowknife.It has become an important part of the regional economy, employing 700, grossing C$100 million in sales, and producing 8 million carats of diamonds annually...
- Volcanism of Northern CanadaVolcanism of Northern CanadaVolcanism of Northern Canada has led to the formation of hundreds of volcanic areas and extensive lava formations across Northern Canada, indicating volcanism played a major role in shaping its surface...
External links
- "Digging for Diamonds 24/7 Under Frozen Snap Lake", WiredWired (magazine)Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
, November 24, 2008 - Photo gallery at De Beers Canada
- Snap Lake project, gallery at FlickrFlickrFlickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...