Operations start to wrap up at De Beers Victor Mine near Attawapiskat

De Beers says the company has finished mining in the pit at its Victor Mine, located west of Attawapiskat.

The company has been mining diamonds in the James Bay lowlands for a little over ten years. Last fall, it announced it would shut down the Victor Mine as it had been depleted.

The company says it will continue operations at the mine until early May to process stockpiled kimberlite.

"The reason we targeted exiting the pit this week is due to the sun starting to melt the ice that has built up on the north wall inside the pit," Tom Ormsby, the head of external and corporate affairs said.

"While the ice build up and melt happens every winter, the difference this year in our final year is that the design of the pit bottom is below where the ice could potentially fall, so for safety reasons we decided that we would exit the pit by this date to ensure no one would be at risk while the spring melt begins."

The company had planned to expand the mine with its Tango project, but announced in 2017 it was not moving ahead.