Inuit would lose with Jericho mine closure, leader says
An Inuit leader in the region where Tahera Diamond Corp.'s Jericho mine is located said he hopes the company will emerge from bankruptcy protection, as Inuit would be affected if the mine closes.
Tahera was granted creditor protection on Wednesday after it failed to raise $40 million it needed to bring supplies up the winter road to the mine, which is Nunavut's first and only operational mine.
The Jericho mine, which is the Toronto-based company's main asset, is located about 360 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay, in the Kitikmeot region in western Nunavut. It began operating in early 2006 and officially opened in August that year.
About 35 of the approximately 100 people currently working at the mine are Inuit — including some relatives of Donald Havioyak, president of the Kitikmeot Inuit Association.
"It's a benefit to Inuit in the region, by way of employment and contracting," Havioyak told CBC News on Wednesday.
"If it does close, it's a loss to us."
The association estimates that 160 people from the region work at the Jericho mine over the course of a year. Havioyak said he will meet with Tahera officials in two weeks.
"We have lots of Inuit from the region that are working in Tahera, and that would have a big impact," he said.
"Unemployment can be a very sad thing for our region if they do close down."
An Ontario Superior Court judge approved Tahera's bankruptcy protection filing on Wednesday, appointing PricewaterhouseCoopers to monitor the company's operations and help develop a restructuring plan.
Business will continue as usual while Tahera is under bankruptcy protection. The court will decide on Feb. 14 whether to extend that protection.
The company announced in November that it lost $143 million during the first nine months of 2007. It had also written off $73 million it had spent on the mine that it did not expect to recover.
At the time, officials cited the high Canadian dollar, high gas prices and flat diamond prices as reasons for its struggles.
Tahera had hoped to raise the $40 million in the stock market in order to resupply the mine before the winter road closes in the spring. But chairman and CEO Peter Gillin admitted that they were trying to raise a lot of money for a relatively small company.
"Market conditions are not all that robust at the present time," Gillin said.
Gillin says if they can't raise or borrow enough money, Tahera will have to sell the mine or the company's other assets.
Wednesday's news made Tahera one of the most active companies trading that day on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Tahera stocks closed at seven cents Wednesday, down from $0.075, on trading of more than two million shares.