Jericho mine owner Shear Diamonds disappears, says report

Shear Diamonds, which bought Canada’s Jericho mine site in 2010 following the bankruptcy of previous owners, Tahera Diamond Corp, appears to have disappeared, according to a media report.

Canadian broadcaster CBC reported that Shear Diamonds' phones have been disconnected. A check on the company's website also found that it has been taken down.

With Shear in financial trouble last summer, it carried out a basic clean-up at the Jericho site, and all its staff members were flown out in a period of just 48 hours, CBC reported. Regulators only discovered what had happened a few days later.

Shear Diamonds put on hold its plan to revive the mine in Nunavut in Canada's far north, which was last operated from 2006 to 2008, just a matter of months after it restarted operations. The firm attributed its decision to weak international prices for diamonds.

On November 15, 2012, Shear then announced it was dealing with new challenges. These included the departure of top management, and a debt of about $3 million to Antwerp-based diamond firm Taché Company NV which had agreed to buy production from the mine.

The Jericho mine was the third diamond mine to start operations in Canada, and is Nunavut’s first such mine.