Project management company AMEC has won a $65-million contract for the engineering, procurement and construction of the Victor diamond mine in Northern Ontario.
The company said the mine, which has a capital cost of $983 million, will be the first diamond mine in Ontario and De Beers' second mine in Canada.
The site - about 90 kilometres west of the First Nation community of Attawapiskat, in the James Bay lowlands - will include an open-pit mine, a processing plant capable of treating 2.65 million tonnes per year, workshops, a warehouse, offices, a fuel storage facility, a housing complex and an airstrip.
Production from the diamond mine is scheduled to start in late 2008.
DeBeers Canada recently received ratification of an agreement with the Attawapiskat First Nation and approval of an environmental assessment by the federal government.
The project is expected to employ 600 workers during construction and 400 employees during production.
De Beers Canada, a unit of the big South African-based diamond producer De Beers group, also has a diamond project under development in Snap Lake in the Northwest Territories.
