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Around Nunavut
April
7, 2006
Tahera completes Jericho
construction
It's finished, and it's
up and running.
The Tahera Diamond Corp.
announced this week that they've finished construction of the Kitikmeot's Jericho
diamond mine, and that their plant will process 2,000 tonnes of ore a day by
the end of June.
It's Canada's third diamond
mine, and the only diamond mine that's 100-per-cent Canadian-owned.
Tahera also announced that
they've used up the $35 million in credit extended to them by Tiffany &
Co. for the purpose of financing construction of the mine. Tiffany has also
agreed to buy and market most of Jericho's production.
Despite the good news,
Tahera's share price is still low, trading at 67 cents this past Wednesday,
down from a high of 83 cents reached the previous month.
That's likely because of
market reaction to news that warm weather forced closure of the ice road used
to truck supplies to Jericho and other mines north of Yellowknife.
April
7, 2006
Murder charge laid
in Kugaaruk
JOHN THOMPSON
Police have charged a Kugaaruk
man with first-degree murder in connection with the death of a five-year-old
girl.
Shawn Kayaitok, 20, is
also accused of having anal sex with the girl's dead body.
The dead girl was found
in a shed in Kugaaruk on the morning of March 10, 2006. Police spent several
weeks interviewing more than 100 people before they arrested Kayaitok.
During the time of his
arrest, Kayaitok already faced charges of sexual assault and buggery, which
allegedly occurred on January 14, 2006.
Like the five-year-old
girl's name, the name of the complainant in that case may not be published because
of a publication ban.
The charge of buggery was
later stayed, but Kayaitok still faces the sexual assault charge. He is scheduled
to stand trial by judge and jury in Kugaaruk during the next circuit court visit,
on June 7, 2006.
Kayaitok was scheduled
to make his first appearance for the murder charge in court on Thursday, April
6, after the Nunatsiaq News press-time this week.
April
7, 2006
Cumberland to get
$250 million for Meadowbank
Cumberland Resources Ltd.,
the company that's planning to open the Meadowbank gold mine near Baker Lake,
got a big financial boost last week when a group of three European investment
banks agreed to give them a $250 million credit arrangement that's tied to the
value of Cumberland's gold resource.
The banks, Barclays Capital
of the U.K., Bayerische Hypo-und-Vereinsbank of Germany, and Societé
Generale of France, will pledge the money against the value of 420,000 ounces
of gold from Meadowbank. At a world price of $600 an ounce, that's worth about
$250 million.
But until Cumberland receives
all necessary permits and licences from government regulators, nothing will
happen.
The Nunavut Impact Review
Board last week finished the final public hearings on their environmental review
of the Meadowbank gold mine.
The next step will be for
the review board to make a recommendation to the DIAND minister, Jim Prentice,
on whether the mine should go ahead. If Prentice gives the mine a green light,
then the company will easily clear most of the other bureaucratic hurdles.
Cumberland's share price
shot past $5 upon the news, then settled down to $4.92 as of Wednesday.
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