Mining for diamonds at the cold face

In Canada’s Northwest Territories on the cusp of the Arctic Circle, De Beers and Mountain Province Diamonds have invested C$1bn building the Gahcho Kué mine in an environment hostile beyond imagination.

The mine’s hundreds of employees are kept alive by a single road snaking 280km across frozen lakes and uninhabited tundra. Massive cargo and diesel trucks can only use the road in winter. In summer, the mine can only be reached by air.

Winter temperatures at the mine can drop to -50°C or lower. The employees warn visitors about the cold on the two-hour flight from Calgary in the south or the shorter one-hour hop from Yellowknife, the capital of the vast Northwest Territories where 40,000 people live under the gorgeous, sinuous Northern Lights.

Newbies are warned not to breathe too deeply when disembarking from the plane. One employee shows photos of scars on his wrist after his steel watch and strap froze in a particularly cold spell when he was working outside.

The mine’s general manager, South African Allan Rodel, says the shift system is a big factor in luring staff to the inhospitable mine where their every need is anticipated and catered for

We are also warned not to put cream on our exposed skin as it will freeze and leave blemishes. When the wind is blowing, it will cut through however many layers of clothing worn, we are told.

Life is tough in the camp, employees say. It can be impossible to have any comfort outside for months on end — but there are attractions that make working here bearable.

A two-weeks-on and two-weeks-off shift rotation is a big drawcard, especially when leave is tacked on the end. Salaries are also an attraction. Although lower than those offered by Canada’s oil and gas industries, they are still enticing.

The mine’s general manager, South African Allan Rodel, says the shift system is a big factor in luring staff to the inhospitable mine where their every need is anticipated and catered for. His management team lives 280km away in Yellowknife and work four days out of seven.

Gahcho Kué essentially needs a double staff complement — some 530 people — to accommodate the two-week shift that entails 12-hour working days that employees say often run longer than that.

This leaves little time to loiter in the canteen that provides cooked meals, snacks and fruit, or in the recreation room with a piano, pool table and games. There is a large and well-equipped gymnasium, which camp and travel coordinator Joe Adams says is the most popular venue.

Gahcho Kué, the largest diamond mine to be opened in more than a decade, is an important addition for De Beers, which holds 51% of the joint venture with Canada’s Mountain Province. The C$1bn (about $736m) mine will generate 4.5-million carats a year, half of which goes to De Beers, which has pegged its global output for 2017 at between 31-million and 33-million carats.

The camp is a sprawling maze of corridors — lined with pipes carrying boiling glycol to heat the buildings — which lead into warrens of sleeping accommodation comprising small rooms equipped with single beds, a television, cupboard and an inconsequential desk. Toilets and showers are shared.

It costs C$30,000 a year to accommodate and feed each person at the camp, including the twice-a-week flights. The mine’s runway can land a 737 jet or a cargo-carrying Hercules C-130.

Apart from the hostile winter weather, the biggest challenge is keeping costs to a minimum. Operating in this part of Canada adds up to a third more costs than in a more temperate environment such as southern Africa, Rodel says.

Staff numbers are kept to a minimum and engineers have plans to cut costs. One example is using exhaust gases from three generators of the mine’s five-generator set to boil glycol and pump the heated fluid around the nearly 14,000m² of buildings, keeping them warm enough for staff to walk around in vests and shorts.

Mine operations manager Craig Wessner says no longer burning diesel for heat has saved up to C$3m a year. He takes care to ensure the generators keep functioning — the processing plant that will deliver more than 4-million carats of diamonds a year relies on the power and so do the 377 people living in the camp.

• De Beers sponsored Seccombe’s trip to Gahcho Kué.