Diamonds in Canada Editorial: The next diamond boom

We’ve timed the release of our June issue to coincide with Diamonds in Canada’s first-ever event.

The inaugural Diamonds in Canada Symposium, hosted by The Northern Miner, will take place on June 11 at the Royal York in Toronto.

The event will look at the diamond market and industry trends, and involve some of the biggest players in the sector — including Grenville and Eira Thomas.

Each had a central role in the founding and building of Canada’s diamond sector: Gren Thomas was the founder of Aber Diamond (now Dominion Diamond) and is still deeply involved in diamond exploration through North Arrow Minerals. His daughter Eira Thomas was part of the exploration team at Aber that found the Diavik mine, as well as a founder of Stornoway Diamond and Lucara Diamond.

A passion for diamonds clearly runs deep in the Thomas family. It also runs deep throughout the diamond exploration and mining sector— a tiny fraternity in mining that may finally be on the verge of expanding in a significant way for the first time in 25 years.

Some of the world’s biggest diamond mines are slated for closure in the next decade. Rio Tinto’s Argyle mine in Australia is in its last years of production, while the mine life at its 60%-owned Diavik mine ends in 2025. At Ekati, recent reports that owner Dominion Diamond is delaying the development of the Jay project cast some uncertainty over its expected production, as well.

Smaller mines are also closing — De Beers’ Snap Lake ceased production in 2016 to be followed by its rich Victor mine in Ontario next year.

New mines Gahcho Kué and Renard won’t make up the shortfall. And with a more than decade-long slump in funding for diamond exploration, new discoveries have been few. At the same time, demand for diamonds is expected to rise with the expanding middle class across China, India, and other developing nations.

“There aren’t any large deposits that have been discovered in the past ten years that can feed even average demand,” notes Gren Thomas.

This all creates an opportunity for those who recognize it. Lucara Diamond, for example, is adding an executive to its team with responsibility for corporate development, to look for opportunities in Canada, Botswana and elsewhere. Meanwhile, looking to feed the project pipelines of diamond miners that will need to replace production within the next decade, Burgundy Mining Advisors is launching a fund that will home in on high-potential diamond exploration projects at the crucial discovery stage (see Page 23).

We believe the timing of our symposium could be just right to catch the next updraft for the diamond sector. More than 25 years after the first diamond staking and exploration frenzy in Canada’s north, we may be ready for a second boom.

— This article was first published in the June 2018 issue of Diamonds in Canada.