The Ekati Diamond Mine ("Ekati") is Canada's first surface and underground

diamond mine There are a limited number of commercially available diamond mines currently operating in the world, with the 50 largest mines accounting for approximately 90% of global supply. Diamonds are also mined alluvially over disperse areas, where dia ...

. It is located north-east of

Yellowknife Yellowknife (; Dogrib: ) is the capital, largest community, and only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the ...

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

, and about south of the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. Its southern equivalent is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at w ...

, near

Lac de Gras Lac de Gras is a lake approximately north east of Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Lac de Gras was the centre of the diamond rush of the 1990s. There are two working, and one closed, diamond mines in the area, Diavik Diamond ...

. Until 2014 Ekati was a joint venture between

Dominion Diamond Mines Arctic Canadian Diamond Company (formerly known as Dominion Diamond Mines, Dominion Diamond Corporation, Harry Winston, and Aber) is a Canadian specialist diamond mining company. Aside from its corporate office in Calgary, Arctic Canadian also has ...

(80%), and the two geologists who discovered

kimberlite Kimberlite is an igneous rock and a rare variant of peridotite. It is most commonly known to be the main host matrix for diamonds. It is named after the town of Kimberley in South Africa, where the discovery of an diamond called the Star of ...

pipes north of Lac de Gras, Chuck Fipke and Stewart Blusson each holding a 10% stake in the mine, until Fipke sold his share to Dominion.

History

The first volcanic pipe found in the Lac de Gras region was the Point Lake kimberlite, discovered by Chuck Fipke and Stewart Blusson who had been prospecting in the region for almost ten years, having found

indicator minerals as early as 1985. The Point Lake kimberlite was determined to be uneconomic, but its discovery precipitated one of largest staking rushes in mining history, covering most of the area between Yellowknife and the Arctic coast. There are 156 known kimberlite pipes within the Ekati block of claims, including the Point Lake pipe. Ekati officially began operations on October 14, 1998, and was operated by

BHP BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

. The next kimberlites to be developed at Ekati will be mined using open pit methods and are named Jay and Sable, discovered in 1993 and 1995, respectively. Underground mining of the Misery kimberlite will commence in 2020, after open pit operations have been completed. Ekati Diamond mine, which is currently operated by Dominion Diamond is scheduled to remain operational until 2033. On November 13, 2012,

CBC News CBC News is a division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC.ca. ...

reported that the

Harry Winston Diamond Corporation Arctic Canadian Diamond Company (formerly known as Dominion Diamond Mines, Dominion Diamond Corporation, Harry Winston, and Aber) is a Canadian specialist diamond mining company. Aside from its corporate office in Calgary, Arctic Canadian also has ...

, 40% owners of

Diavik Diamond Mine The Diavik Diamond Mine is a diamond mine in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada, about northeast of Yellowknife. Description Diavik Diamond Mine is an industrial complex set in a remote, subarctic landscape. It consis ...

, would buy Ekati for US$500 million.Harry Winston buying Ekati mine for $500M US
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Geology

Diamonds at the Ekati site are found in 45- to 62-million-year-old kimberlite pipes (Creaser et al., 2004) of the

Lac de Gras kimberlite field The Lac de Gras kimberlite field is a group of Late Cretaceous to Eocene age diatremes in the Northwest Territories, Canada. The Eocene (ca. 55-50 Ma) age diatremes of the Lac de Gras kimberlite field support two world-class diamond mines called ...

, most of which lie underneath shallow lakes. The mining needs the construction of frozen dam cores with

heat pipes A heat pipe is a heat-transfer device that employs phase transition to transfer heat between two solid interfaces. At the hot interface of a heat pipe, a volatile liquid in contact with a thermally conductive solid surface turns into a vapor ...

that inhibits water transfer to the open pit during mining activities.

Mining and marketing

Between 1998 and 2009, the mine has produced 40 million carats () of diamonds out of six open pits. As the high grade ore close to surface was depleted, development was completed to access the ore utilizing underground methods. Currently, there is one underground operation (Misery Underground) with open-cut mining occurring in Sable Pit. The mine's current annual production is estimated to be approximately 7.5 million carats () of diamonds. Ekati supplies rough diamonds to the global market through its sorting and selling operations in Canada, Belgium, and India.

Transportation

Mine workers

fly-in fly-out Fly-in fly-out is a method of employing people in remote areas by flying them temporarily to the work site instead of relocating employees and their families permanently. It is often abbreviated to FIFO when referring to employment status. This is ...

through

Ekati Airport Ekati Airport is located at the Ekati Diamond Mine, Northwest Territories, Canada and is operated by Arctic Canadian Diamond Company Prior permission is required to land except in the case of an emergency. It is a busy aerodrome with blasting i ...

Gallery

Footnotes

References

* Creaser, R.A. et al., 2004. "Macrocrystal phlogopite Rb-Sr dates for the Ekati property kimberlites, Slave Province, Canada: evidence for multiple intrusive episodes in the Paleocene and Eocene", ''8th International Kimberlite Conference Selected Papers'', vol. 1, pp. 399–414. * Abraham, Carolyn, October 11, 2006.
X marks the spotlight for elusive benefactor
,

Globe & Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

.
Stuart Blusson from the GSC to Ekati
* ]

External links

Official website
by the current operators,

. Includes a photo of the largest diamond yet found, a 186 ct. water-white gem found in 2016.
Ekati Diamond Mine photos
at

Google Images Google Images (previously Google Image Search) is a search engine owned by Google that allows users to search the World Wide Web for images. It was introduced on July 12, 2001 due to a demand for pictures of the green Versace dress of Jennifer ...

Ekati Diamond Mine profile
at BHP Billiton Watch
CanadaMark
{{Authority control 1998 establishments in the Northwest Territories Buildings and structures completed in 1998 Diamond mines in Canada Diatremes of the Northwest Territories Eocene volcanoes Mines in the Northwest Territories Open-pit mines Paleocene volcanoes Surface mines in Canada Underground mines in Canada