In July, De Beers hosted a reception – complete with canapés and fountains of chocolate – at the Snap Lake mine to recognize its opening.

Guests at the event – hosted in the mine’s temporary dining hall – included the NWT premier, the mayor of Yellowknife, several chiefs, representatives of the contractors and suppliers that had helped build the mine, and folks who’d had an ownership stake in the property over the years, going all the way back to a guy who staked the ground in 1992. It was also a reunion of sorts for the “De Beers family of companies,” as corporate execs refer to it. CEOs from De Beers’ operations in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and England were there. Also in attendance were De Beers’ chairman Nicky Oppenheimer and his son and heir to the throne, Jonathan.

The Oppenheimers were not made available for an interview, but De Beers Canada’s president, Jim Gowans, and Gareth Penny, the managing director of De Beers’ diamond selling arm, the Diamond Trading Company, took a few moments to speak to reporters. Gathered around a display case of gems from the mine below – and amid the din of the ongoing reception – the two took turns answering questions from members of the media. Later in the evening they would board a plane bound for De Beers’ Victor diamond mine in remote northern Ontario, for its official opening the next day.

On being the third diamond mine to open in the Northwest Territories and the resulting challenges to attracting a Northern workforce:

Jim Gowans: The well is drier now. We’re working on training programs for all of the trades. We have an extensive training program, both in the process plant and underground. Our jobs are a little different than the other mines that are open pit, although they’re starting to go underground, too. But we are able to hire and maintain the Northern percentages.

On producing far fewer carats of diamonds per year than Diavik or Ekati:

Gareth Penny: It’s not about producing more or producing less. Right next to us here we have this fabulous product that you see. For us, Snap is an exciting and interesting project. It is a very, very big ore body, probably the biggest ore body that will be mined in Canada now. This is a mine that has a proven reserve of at least 20 years, so that will outlast Ekati and Diavik by quite a considerable period of time. It may even be that it will go to 40 years. This is a huge ore body and it has a lot of life ahead of it.

On the Gahcho Kué diamond project falling to third on De Beers’ priority list, behind Victor and Snap Lake:

JG: I wasn’t around when that happened, but it’s my understanding – and I’d have done it the same way – that Snap Lake represents a larger ore body that will go a lot longer. It has higher-value diamonds per carat and it was further advanced in terms of development.

On partner Mountain Province Diamonds wanting out of Gahcho Kué because of De Beers’ slow progress:

JG: We’re still moving on that project. Right now we’re doing a lot of evaluation on Gahcho Kué. We did a large drilling program this year and we’re going through the analysis of those samples. After we get that we’ll take a look at what we want to do with that project. It’s frustrating for a junior but you always have to be very measured. We have huge challenges here in the North with the high cost of fuel so we want to make sure we make the right decisions.

On the importance of De Beers solidifying its relationships with first nations in the area:

JG: It’s very important. I moved up North in 1975. I’ve lived here twice, so I understand the challenges we have. We’ve made a very strong commitment to working with first nations. Including Victor we’ve spent over $650-million with aboriginal joint ventures or aboriginal businesses. I think we’ve made a significant contribution during the construction phase. We have ongoing permanent partners working at Snap on everything from supplying our Shotcrete for underground to site services. We think it’s a combination of business development for aboriginal businesses and joint ventures and also direct employment. We’re at about 51 per cent Northerners and 29 per cent in terms of aboriginal hires. We believe it’s part of the ongoing commitment we have.

On what De Beers can offer aboriginal people that other mines can’t:

JG: It changes with time. Our ideas are more focused on business development as opposed to direct employment because of the nature of where we were on the development scene. That will be an ongoing focus.

On plans to build a new accommodation centre for staff by next fall:

JG: We don’t have the final numbers in but it will probably cost in the order of $40-million. It’s modular, similar to the other accommodation complexes. Certainly the people putting it together and doing the foundation design are all going to be Northerners.

On where the diamonds go after they leave the Snap Lake mine:

GP: It’s a combination of things. Some of this production will be sold directly to factories in the NWT. About 10 per cent – according to the terms of the agreement we have [with the government of the NWT] – will be sold directly from this production. The balance will be made into selling mixtures that will be sold to international businesses around the world.

Most of these diamonds inevitably will be cut and polished in India or China, particularly the smaller sizes. From there they would be set in a variety of different countries: India has quite a big jewellery industry, so does China, so does Italy. High-quality stones will be cut in places like New York, Antwerp, Israel and may be set in France. This is a truly international industry. What’s so exciting about this project is that there will be direct supply and value-addition processes beyond mining here in Canada. It’s the combination that is really important.

On artists and jewellers from the NWT getting preferred access to Snap Lake’s diamonds:

GP: The diamond industry today is an incredibly competitive industry. There are a huge number of players in it. Within 40 kilometres of us here at Snap Lake you have Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, De Beers and Harry Winston (through its shares). You have a lot of big mining houses.

They all sell their product in a different way, but there is a proportion of diamonds that gets auctioned to anyone who wants to buy rough diamonds for the kind of purposes that you’re describing. No one is excluded from buying the product and setting it in jewellery or being creative with it in some other way.

On plans to give preferential access to local aboriginal artists who want to work with a material that comes from their land:

GP: I’m not aware of having been approached with that kind of program. We’d certainly look at it if somebody put something together and brought it to us. We have a commitment to sell 10 per cent of this production here in the NWT and we’re certainly planning to stick to that.

On marketing De Beers Canada as opposed to De Beers:

JG: It’s not a lot different. We operate by a set of values that comes from our parent company. We’re very committed to that. That would include sustainable development, commitment to the local communities, and that’s reflected in what we do with our Impact and Benefit Agreements and how we do our employment stats. We’ve focused on capability development so after we shut down, a lot of the capability has been transferred.

There’s always an element of local opportunities because about 10 per cent of our diamonds by value are available. We’ve just signed a similar memorandum of understanding with the Ontario government. That goes to the people who want to get involved with the Canadian aspect of diamonds. Then you have the rest that goes to the world. I’ve worked around the world, everywhere from Indonesia and South Africa to India. The name De Beers is synonymous with diamonds. It’s far more marketable on the global scale than Canadian diamonds, and I hate to say that because I’m a Canadian but that’s the reality.

GP: In terms of De Beers, we have what we call the family of companies. In this room we have the CEOs of De Beers’ companies from all over the world. We’ve brought them all here because this is such an important event. We have the CEO from Botswana, from Namibia, from South Africa, from the UK, from our international marketing programs in Asia. We have about 10 different nationalities of companies from within the De Beers family.

But what we always think is important is to act globally, think locally. What Jim is driving is a very strong program to create an image for De Beers in Canada, for De Beers Canada, its operations and people, the contribution it’s making to the community. We obviously seek to do similar things in the other places we work, but we certainly haven’t taken our eye off the ball here in the sense of the importance of creating the brand in Canada.

On the kinds of diamonds that are coming out of the Snap Lake mine:

GP: The diamonds come in a huge range of sizes and colours and qualities. Many of those colours and qualities and sizes are similar to other productions around the world.

In general, the average value from Snap Lake and Victor is higher than that from mines in certain other parts of the world, but you can’t really generalize about a country. You have to talk about specific mines.