Diamond giant sets up shop in Calgary “Calgary is perfect as sort of a centre of gravity. It puts us smack dab in the middle of Canada.”
The company — which also has a mine in Ontario nearing the end of its lifespan — wanted to be closer to the geographical centre of its operations, Truter said.
In addition to its mines, De Beers Canada has exploration projects across the country, including one recently announced in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca basin.
While other locations for a new corporate headquarters were considered, Truter said Calgary was attractive because of its international airport as well as its available labour pool.
Some of the people De Beers Canada hired locally were laid-off veterans of the oil and gas industry, with expertise in resource exploration and extraction.
“We picked up some very, very good people out of the oil industry and we’re extremely thankful for that. We want to hold onto them,” he said.
De Beers Canada’s move west is he culmination of a nine-month-long restructuring effort by the diamond company, which was impacted by a global softening of commodities prices in 2015.
The company made the decision to suspend production at its unprofitable Snap Lake mine in the NWT, and has consolidated and outsourced positions in other locations.
About 1,300 people work for De Beers Canada now, down from about 2,200 a year earlier.
astephenson@postmedia.com
https://www.calgarysun.com/2016/07/06/diamond-giant-sets-up-shop-in-calgary