Active closure is expected to be done this summer, though the site will be monitored until at least 2039
Today, Ontario's first diamond mine — located in a remote area of the James Bay lowlands west of Attawapiskat First Nation — fewer than 100 people remain on-site. That's far less than the 500 employees and contractors who were there during the height of the mine's operations, said De Beers head of corporate affairs Erik Madsen.
The first phase of the closure started in 2019. It saw the demolition of the infrastructure — including the processing plant that recovered nearly nine million carats of diamonds. Year-round, Madsen said there has been work to cap facilities, build water drainage channels and collection ponds, prepare new fish habitat and seed the site.
“So equipment that’s really going to be used the next three months in the final contouring of earthworks to make everything look nice and pretty and set up for a proper spring erosion and all that as part of the closure. That equipment will be lined up and it will have to be taken apart because it has to meet the weight restrictions on the ice road to haul them out. There is a possibility we could fly them out,” he said.
Through a partnership between Attawapiskat Enterprises and Priestly Demolition, Madsen said the hope is that material will be sold and the funds will be used to support community development projects.The airport rescue truck went to Moosonee and the pumper truck was donated to the Attawapiskat Fire Department, said Madsen.
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