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their take on a possible timeline for Shore Gold's first mine and the need for diamond value added developments in Prince Albert. See what you see...
and polished within Saskatchewan to prove they are 100% Canadian"
international diamond buyers.
The short of it is, "Why do diamond value-added work within the DDAC, if you need to travel to Antwerp or even Toronto to purchase the diamonds, or if other jurisdictions are cheaper to work in?"
Read more at http://www.stockhouse.com/bullboards/messagedetail.aspx?s=sgf&t=LIST&m=31655010&l=0&pd=0&r=0#1VXjl3pauWCqX1ES.99
Submitted on September 6, 2012 - 7:17am
By Andrew de Souza
paNOW Staff
Even though the federal government has dropped the requirement for federal environment assessments for more than 700 projects in Saskatchewan, environmental scrutiny will continue.
The federal government recently announced it would cancel about 3,000 environmental assessments for projects across the country when it updated the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.
Maxine Leger-Haskell with the Canada Environment Assessment Agency said the spirit of the law was to focus on more important projects.
“The vast majority of screening-type environmental assessments were for projects smaller in scale and complexity,” she wrote in an email.
“These screening-type environmental assessments ceased when CEAA 2012 came into force to ensure federal government resources are allocated to the review of major projects that have greater potential for significant environmental impact.”
Despite the changes, environmental scrutiny will still continue on several levels.
One project that is large enough to retain the requirement for assessment is the Star-Orion
“All comprehensive studies begun under the former Act continue to be conducted under the comprehensive study process outlined in the former Act. All assessments by review panels review are also continued under [the new act],” she said.
“The comprehensive study-type environmental assessment for the proposed Star-Orion South Diamond Mine Project that commenced under the former Act is still required and is continuing."
“The Agency is now reviewing the Revised Environmental Impact Statement submitted by the proponent in August, 2012, to ensure it contains all information required for the environmental assessment process. The Agency will announce a public comment period related to the Environmental Impact Statement in the near future.”
Other smaller projects will continue with some level of scrutiny. For instance, the province has said it will not change its own environmental standards and require its own assessments for many projects.
Others projects, such as those in the Prince Albert National Park will continue with their own internal assessments, which would have occurred even under the old act.
Allen Fehr is the superintendent for the park. He said in the past a federal assessment was required for projects such as controlled burns. Now they’ll do assessments just use their own channels to get it out to the public.
“What would happen now is when we are proposing a project when we think there is going to be potential significant harm to natural or cultural resources then we have to implement an environmental assessment process of our own, which we have always done on our own anyway,” he said.
“What we’ll be doing now is posting it maybe on our own website and informing people in some other way.”
A complete list of the projects the federal government will no longer require assessments for is available by following this link.
What this News Release is telling us is that a "Revised" EIS" has been submitted to the Provincial and Federal Review Agencies. In part from the News Release, "Senior Vice President Exploration and Development, George Read, states: “The submission of the Revised EIS marks the achievement of another major milestone on the route to the development of a world-class diamond mine in Saskatchewan. The Revised EIS is a substantial document that represents a huge amount of work and includes over 10,500 pages of information. The completion of the Revised EIS proved to be a substantial amount of work and the Shore and AMEC staff are complemented on their diligent completion of this task. Shore is presently focused on the completion of all Federal and Provincial requirements for Project approval and subsequent permitting. Simultaneous to the ongoing completion of Project approval and permitting, Shore is in pursuit of development capital on a number of fronts.” Full News Release available on Shore Gold's website or here... http://shoregold.com/_resources/news_releases/2012/NEWSREL10Aug2012Revised-EIS.pdf
Duffer
Shore Gold has spent the last decade working to prove the diamond mine is feasible, but the exploration company has a long road ahead before the precious stones will be profitable.
"I think people who have been big believers in this are just wishing this would come to pass," said Paul Martin, a business analyst in Saskatchewan.
Only one in 6,000 diamond exploration projects are proven to work and the Star-Orion South diamond project, in the Fort a la Corne forest near Prince Albert, is one of them, said a spokesperson for Shore Gold.
"To date, some $330 million have been spent to bring us to the point where we know that there is a viable diamond mine in Saskatchewan," said George Read, senior vice-president exploration and development.
But the tedious process of attaining an environmental permit has taken longer than expected.
"There was a review by both the federal and provincial authorities and they produced some 700 items or so that were required to be remedied," said Read.
"We have worked on all of those and remedied them and it has taken some time to get through all of that. We are now very close to being finished."
The company is charting new territory because there are no specific regulations in place for diamond mines in the province.
Aside from environmental obligations, a major financial partner is needed to get the project up and running.
"It's going to require a major investor to come in to put up the better part of a billion dollars to turn this from a prospect into a producing mine," Martin said.
"There aren't many players to do that, so if you've been a long-term investor in Shore (Gold), you're probably getting impatient," he said.
Last February, Shore Gold announced a downsizing of the company that affected the board of directors, the management and the staff because they were uncertain of how quickly they could finance the project.
"The world financial situation, particularly in Europe, did not look rosy then and still does not look rosy now.
"We elected to downsize our staff to a small group of confident staff who could get the work done," Read said, noting that once they find financing, they will expand the company again.
Last month, a group of Shore Gold shareholders expressed their frustrations at the annual general meeting in Saskatoon.
"It becomes very problematic to make an informed and intelligent decision as a shareholder when you don't have good information," said Dave Wright, with the SGF shareholders association.
For companies like Shore, it is not surprising that they have a high profile in Saskatchewan with a fan base that wants to invest in local projects, said Martin.
"You'll have those who are the super-believers, so they would go to the extreme of mortgaging a home," Martin said.
Shore Gold is actively pursuing various avenues -- a joint venture partner with deep pockets is the most desirable. A large portion of the cost comes from the machinery needed and there are equipment manufacturers that provide financing, not unlike a car dealership, Read said.
"There are many major mining companies around the world and interestingly they are descending on Saskatchewan because of potash. Once they're here, they'll start looking around to see if there are any other opportunities," Martin said.
"I am confident that there will be a diamond mine in Saskatchewan's future and I'm hoping it will happen sooner rather than later," Read said.
It appears that my full response to your question was much longer than allowed on this forum. Sorry about that.
Below please find the link I referred to in my last post... Project Proposal - November 3, 2008
Hi turcotte, my time as an investor in diamond plays goes back to Kensington Resources in 1999. The reason I initially became a shareholder in KRT was because of DeBeers participation in the FALC Joint Venture property... I figured if one the biggest diamond miners in the world was involved there had to be a pretty good chance of seeing a diamond mine, or a buyout, with an opportunity to see a good return on an investment in KRT shares.
Unfortunately DeBeers as the operator were slothlike when it came to releasing timely information and results so... in 2000 I decided to invest in Shore Gold, a junior exploration company, who had property, the Star Diamond Project, adjacent to the DeBeers, Kensington Resources, Cameco FALC JV property.
Shore Gold seemed like they were moving forward much faster than the JV property. There was a lot of interest from many majors as Shore Gold continued to show excellent results from early exploration and drilling results.
Benny Steinmetz and his group became involved in Shore Gold investing approximately 9% and supplying mining equipment through his group of companies this was 2003 through 2004 as Shore Gold was moving toward sinking a large shaft to prove what they felt they had in the ground.
The results of this undertaking attracted the attention of Pierre Lassonde the President of Newmont Mining... he felt confident that Newmont's investment in Shore Gold would add the expertise required to move this property toward a mining decision in a timely manner and they would be able to offer considerable information in reducing the costs when mining.
SGF shareholders and those interested saw our investment grow from below a dollar to around the $8 mark in 2003 -2006 because of the involvement of Steinmetz, Newmont, and the merger with Kensington Resources. DeBeers were given the boot when it came to control of the JV property and decided to accept a buyout and move on to other opportunities where they would have a controlling interest.
There were many opportunities to trade and make a good return on our money as others wanted a piece of our action 2006 - 2008 as Shore Gold was promoting that they would provide a production decision for the Star Diamond Project by the end of 2008, construction would take approximately 2 years and they would be mining ore in early 2011.
Shore Gold, with Ken MacNeill at the helm, seemed like a good company to be invested in. They were working toward confirming that they had 279 million tonnes of kimberlite in the Star Diamond Project and with Newmont as their partner on the Joint Venture side it appeared they had the money and drive to provide timely results there as well.
That all changed when results for their mineral resouce and mineral reserve estimates were late and fell far short of the 279 million tonnes originally projected in the geological models for the star Diamond Project. The shortfall in kimberlite numbers was because of inadequte drilling done on the Star Diamond Project to support those numbers. Yet, Shore Gold continued to promote that they would provide a bankable feasibilty study by the end of 2008 for the Star Diamond Project and that it was still possible to become a standalone mine by early 2011.
November 3, 2008 was the date that Ken MacNeill disappointed his shareholders and the markets when they supplied the Star-Orion South Project Proposal. That was the date we learned that they would have to provide fesibility studies and a final Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) prior to making a production decision... like they didn't know that prior to November 3, 2008 as they continued to promote a production decision would be made by the end of 2008 for the Star Diamond Project???
In part from the Project Proposal we learned that new timelines were projected for a production decision and EIS approval. Shore Gold expected the EIA and corresponding statement (EIS) to be complete by the first quarter of 2010 with production decision to follow. Construction was projected to be 2 to 3 years. They hoped to include results from Orion South.... check bottom of page 3, full Proposal available on SEDAR, Shore Gold's website or with this link...
Good luck with your investment strategies and I hope we all make a lot of money before we are too old to enjoy it or can't remember why or what we wanted to buy with those profits.