Harry Winston ups share in Diavik

Yellowknife, N.W.T. - The Harry Winston Diamond Corporation is getting more control of the Diavik Diamond Mine.

The company will buy back the interest it sold to Kinross Gold in March 2009 for $220 million, raising its stake in the mine up to 40 per cent.

The Chairman and CEO of Harry Winston Diamond Corporation, Bob Gannicott said the new deal will bring the company back to its original share.

"It's really just putting ourselves back to where we were before the financial crisis. Because of cost overruns at Diavik and a sudden decrease in the grade, coinciding with the economic crisis, which knocked diamond prices in half, we needed to get a cash injection."

Gannicott said it was the right time for both for his company and Kinross to make the deal.

"It was their desire to have some liquidity at this time and also, I think, to tidy up their life and just be entirely focused on gold. We, of course, were happy to oblige because we were happy to get the mine interest back."

Gannicott said the new purchase will allow his company to work more freely and develop the retail side of the business.

Rio Tinto owns the controlling, 60 per cent share of Diavik.

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