http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/
Polishing operation had 45 employees at point, most brought in from Vietnam.
It’s still unclear how the closure of the DeBeers mine near Attawapiskat will affect a diamond polishing operation in downtown Sudbury. There are also questions about whether requiring the company to process 10 per cent of its diamonds in the province had much of an impact.
“DeBeers and Crossworks and the Ontario government working together have created a real success story here,” Premier Kathleen Wynne said in 2013, when touring Crossworks Manufacturing in Sudbury.
The secret location was a popular stop for politicians, showing off the new value-added industry and talking about big plans for college programs to train polishers. There were also hopes that the first few dozen workers brought in from Vietnam would give way to locals.
But they don’t appear to have panned out. Calls to Crossworks Manufacturing were not returned. Nickel Belt New Democrat MPP France Gelinas says an opportunity to start a new industry in the north was missed.
“A fraction of what could have been possible,” she says. “Was so well positioned to add in other areas of knowledge and skills and it never really took off.”
For the rest of this article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/debeers-diamond-mine-ontario-polishing-sudbury-1.4383889