Shear Diamonds gets its water license renewal

Shear Diamonds Ltd. announced Feb. 16 that the minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development had approved an eight-year water license for Nunavut’s Jericho diamond mine.

“The Jericho mine’s previous water license was for six years, and it is Shear’s understanding that the granting of this eight-year water license is the longest in Nunavut’s history,” said a company news release.

Julie Lassonde, Shear’s chief executive officer, said the news would be “instrumental in Shear’s next steps.”

“The granting of the Type A water license allows us to continue towards our path to full commercial production at the Jericho mine,” Lassonde said in the release.

Shear bought the mothballed Jericho property from the insolvent remains of the Tahera Diamond Corp. in August 2010.

When Shear bought Jericho, it acquired a recovery plant, maintenance facility, fuel farm, offices, accommodation for 225 staff, an open pit and an estimated three million carats of diamonds underground.

After acquiring the site in the ensuing sale of assets, Shear announced a plan to extract diamonds from stockpiles of ore that Tahera left behind.

Then, last December, Shear struck a deal with a Belgian diamond dealer, Taché, that will give Shear the cash it needs to recover and sell diamonds from the mothballed site’s existing stockpiles.