Length of shutdown at Ekati mine process plant after fire still unknown

The shutdown of the Ekati diamond mine's process plant continues following a fire in the building last week, says Dominion Diamond Corporation.

The diamond mine is located about 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife.

The firehappened at about 7 a.m. June 23 during a planned outage in the mine's process plant. Dominion Diamond Corporation, which owns the Ekati mine, says the fire wasextinguished on the same day.

It said all personnel were safely evacuated from the plant and no injuries have been reported.

Dominion Diamond said an initial assessment of the plant confirmed damages were limited to a small area, with no damage to the main structural components. It said repairs will require the replacement of one of the main de-gritting screens, which are used to wash and screen crushed ore before diamonds are recovered, as well as some electrical wiring and related infrastructure.

The lengthof the shutdown is still unknown while the assessment continues.

The company said surface and underground mining activities are not affected and oremined during the process plant shutdownwill be stockpiled.

It said it intends toprioritize processing of the highest value material when the plant restarts.