30 April 2018
Gahcho Kué Mine has reached another major production milestone with the addition of new diamond mining from the Hearne Pit, the second of three kimberlite pipes in the mine plan. Prestripping of the overburden began earlier this year. Hearne is the smallest of three pipes scheduled to be mined at Gahcho Kué, but shows the highest grade at about 200 carats per 100 tonnes of kimberlite mined. The pit is located in the southwest corner of the mine site, approximately 380 metres from the current 5034 pit that launched production at Gahcho Kué in 2016. The Hearne pit is now being mined concurrently with the 5034 pit until 2019, when the Tuzo pit will join them to become the third pit in production. Hearne contains about 5.5 million tonnes of kimberlite ore and will be mined to a depth of 240 metres over the next four years. About 45M tonnes of rock will also be removed from the pit during mining, crushed to use around the site for building roads, berms, building pads and dykes or permanently deposited into an engineered mine rock storage facility.
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