Arctic Canadian Diamond Company (formerly known as Dominion Diamond Mines, Dominion Diamond Corporation, Harry Winston, and Aber) is a Canadian specialist
diamond
Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...
mining company. Aside from its corporate office in
Calgary
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...
, Arctic Canadian also has cleaning and sorting facilities in Yellowknife and Mumbai and a marketing office in
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, ,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
.
The company once held a 40% stake in the Diavik Diamond Mine Project. Production at the
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 ...
, Canada's second diamond mine, is operated by Dominion Diamond Mines'
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
partner,
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 ...
, a subsidiary of
Rio Tinto Rio Tinto, meaning "red river", may refer to:
Businesses
* Rio Tinto (corporation), an Anglo-Australian multinational mining and resources corporation
** Rio Tinto Alcan, based in Canada
** Rio Tinto Borax in America
*** Rio Tinto Borax Mine, a ...
. The mine began producing diamonds in November 2002.
In 2012 the company purchased all of
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 ...
's diamond assets; the primary asset is the
Ekati Diamond Mine
The Ekati Diamond Mine ("Ekati") is Canada's first surface and underground diamond mine. It is located north-east of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and about south of the Arctic Circle, near Lac de Gras. Until 2014 Ekati was a joint ventur ...
, which is adjacent to the Diavik Mine.
Diavik and Ekati combined are estimated to produce over 7 million carats of diamonds in 2014, worth an estimated $1.1 billion. Diavik and Ekati are currently ranked the 9th and 19th largest diamond mines in the world, respectively, according to total carat production.
The company's participation in the retail segment of the diamond pipeline was by means of its ownership of
Harry Winston, Inc., a chain of retail stores. On January 14, 2013 the company announced that it has entered into an agreement to sell its luxury brand diamond jewelry and timepiece division, Harry Winston Inc., to the
Swatch Group
The Swatch Group Ltd is a Swiss manufacturer of watches and jewellery. The company was founded in 1983 by the merger of ASUAG and SSIH to move to manufacturing quartz-crystal watches to resolve the quartz crisis threatening the traditional Sw ...
for US$750 million plus their assumption of up to US$250 million of pro forma net debt. The transaction included the brand and all the activities related to jewelry and watches, including the 535 employees worldwide and the production company in Geneva (Switzerland).
In March 2017, Dominion Diamond announced it had received an unsolicited and non-binding expression of interest from The Washington Companies to acquire the company for US$1.1 billion.
In July 2017, Dominion announced that it would accept the deal, which closed in November.
In June 2017, a deal was signed with online diamond retailer James Allen to make it the exclusive online retailer of CanadaMark diamonds.
In October, 2018 a 552-carat yellow diamond was discovered at the Diavik Diamond Mine in Canada's Northwest Territories.
By June 2020, the company was close to collapse because sales had stalled so severely during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. Debt had increased to US$1.2 billion. Since the company would be unable to pay that debt, it was in the process of restructuring through the courts to avoid bankruptcy.
In February 2021, Dominion Diamond Mines sold the Ekati Mine, and all its assets, excluding its stake in the Diavik Diamond Mine to a new company named Arctic Canadian Diamond Company, which is made up of a consortium capital funds.
See also
*
Diamonds as an investment
Diamonds were largely inaccessible to investors until the recent advent of regulated commodities, due to a lack of price discovery and transparency. The characteristics of individual diamonds, especially the carat weight, color and clarity, hav ...
References
External links
* {{official website, http://www.ddmines.com/
Mining companies of Canada
Diamond mining companies
Companies based in Toronto
Companies formerly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange
2017 mergers and acquisitions