Diamonds make their mark on Timmins

“This is a good news announcement,” declared Timmins mayor Tom Laughren as he officially proclaimed this week as De Beers Diamond Mine Week in recognition of the impact the De Beers project has had on the city best known for gold mining.
“You know some people may find this a little strange that the city of Timmins is proclaiming De Beers Victor diamond mine week because its 700 kilometres away from here,” admitted mayor Tom Laughren.
“But I think when you look at the impact for one that De Beers has had on our community, when you look at the people from this community now working at De Beers on a fulltime basis, the many people from Timmins who worked up there on a construction basis, as well as companies from Timmins that worked up there, it has had a huge economic impact on our community,” the mayor stated.
“It’s something we are proud of, not only from a City of Timmins perspective, but from economic development perspective as well as a chamber of commerce perspective, because we all lobbied very, very hard for some of the challenges and hurdles De Beers has had and will we continue to do that going forward for any challenges and hurdles going forward,” he added.
The mayor was thanked for the proclamation by Rachel Pineault, the director of human resources and aboriginal affairs for the Victor Project. She said the city of Timmins and the First Nations communities on the James Bay coast have made a significant contribution to the success of the Victor project.
“We’d like to thank the City of Timmins for recognizing the hard work of all our team members, our employees and our partners for bringing us Ontario’s first diamond mine into production,” Pineault said.
“The Victor mine is completing its ramp-up to full production and we are pleased to say that we have been meeting our timelines and targets along the way. In the next couple of weeks we will be celebrating that success with our partners and all of our employees,” said Pineault.
The new Victor mine is located just west of Attawapiskat in the James Bay lowlands where there was the discovery of a huge concentration of kimberlite rock formations more than twenty years ago.
The company will mark the official opening of the mine on Saturday by flying in hundreds of workers and dignitaries for a day-long celebration at the mine site. There is another celebration planned for Timmins next week on July 30.