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Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. PGDIF

"Peregrine Diamonds Ltd is a diamond exploration and development company with interests in diamond exploration properties located at Nunavut and the Northwest Territories in Canada and The Republic of Botswana."


GREY:PGDIF - Post by User

Bullboard Posts
Post by info-checkon Jan 30, 2007 9:42am
139 Views
Post# 12120657

Looks like a good season.

Looks like a good season.Ice road open for light traffic in Canada's Arctic - January 29, 2007 3:45PM ET By Rachelle Younglai TORONTO, Jan 29 (Reuters) - A road made of frozen lakes in Canada's Arctic has opened for very light truck traffic, and diamond mining companies have started transporting crucial supplies needed for their remote mine sites. The winter road, which runs about 570 km (355 miles) and is open only when it is cold enough for lakes to freeze solid enough to support the weight of a truck, is the only ground route for companies to move fuel, explosives and equipment to remote mining sites in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. "We opened yesterday with a handful of loads to (diamond mines) Diavik and Ekati," said Tom Hoefer, spokesman for the Diavik mine, which along with miner BHP Billiton Ltd. operates the road. "And of course as the ice thickens we will be transporting more numbers and heavier loads." On Monday, light loads were being transported to Rio Tinto Ltd. and Aber Diamond Corp.'s Diavik and BHP Billiton's Ekati diamond mine, as well as to De Beers' Snap Lake project. So far, the ice is 27 inches (68 cm) thick and two trucks are leaving every couple of hours, Hoefer said. At full-load capacity, the ice needs to be 42 inches (107 cm) thick and two trucks would leave every 20 minutes. De Beers Canada's chief executive, Jim Gowans, said on Monday the company was starting to move equipment over the ice roads. Snap Lake is expected to start production in the third quarter of 2007. PREPARING FOR HEAVY TRAFFIC Managers of the ice road took extra precautions this year after unseasonably warm weather in 2006 melted part of the road and forced companies to pay more to fly in supplies. Only 75 percent of the 9,200 loads made it up the road last year. Diavik had to cut up its large shovel so that it could fly it in. De Beers had to delay the transportation of its crusher and scrubber, two pieces of equipment that were each about a foot too long and too wide to fit on a Hercules -- an aircraft usually used by the military. Last year's setback, combined with the fact that nearly 10,000 truckloads are expected this year, had road operators looking for alternatives. Hoefer said the road makers started checking on the ice in December and changed some of their equipment. One machine that is normally used to measure ice thickness was used as a snowplow. As the machine was lighter than a regular plow, operators were able to get on the ice before Jan. 1. "It allowed us to get on the ice when ice was thinner," said Hoefer. They plowed the road to its width of 160 feet (50 metres) -- wider than a four-lane highway -- and pushed the snow banks down to reduce the insulating blanket of snow on the ice. A secondary road that joins the main ice road at about the 70-km (44-mile) mark, will be opened to give operators an alternative route for empty trucks to travel back south. "It is to get us around the southern problem we had last year," said Hoefer. De Beers expects to transport about 1,900 loads this year, and Tahera Diamond Corp. expects to move about 500 loads to its Jericho diamond mine in Nunavut. "We are optimistic, that (companies) will get their fuel as required," said Tahera spokesman Grant Ewing. "I don't think we will see a year like last year. The weather and the updates we have gotten ... it looks like it will be better." Tahera expects the road to Jericho to open around Feb. 10 as the mine is 30 km (20 miles) north of the end of the ice road.
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