The closure in July of the Point Lake part of the Ekati complex in the Northwest Territories is the latest blow to Canada’s Far North diamond industry. Owner Burgundy Diamond Mines left open the possibility of resuming open-pit operations at some point, but has laid off hundreds of workers in a foreshadowing of the gem’s local demise.
Diamond mining has accounted for about 30% of the NWT’s economy. It was a good three-decade or so run. But now Snap Lake is closed, Diavik is supposed to shut next year and Gahcho Kué may last until 2030. Though Burgundy said last year Ekati could run until 2040 with underwater and underground mining, the company is working on a new outlook right now and it’s bound to include wider market considerations.
Globally, the diamond market is in disarray. Cheaper synthetic stones are gaining market share. Younger buyers are increasingly skipping traditional diamond engagement rings and luxury spending is forecast to fall in China.
Revenue has plunged at giants Alrosa and De Beers. Anglo American is trying to sell the latter while Botswana is angling for a controlling stake in the company that accounts for about a quarter of its economy. Gem Diamonds, Petra Diamonds, Lucapa and Lucara are all down on most metrics.
‘Worst of the trough’
Industry expert Paul Zimnisky nevertheless expressed optimism in late July even though stone prices have sunk 40% since their all-time highs in early 2022, according to his global rough diamond index.
“Year-to-date, prices have stabilized and we are through the worst of the trough,” Zimnisky told The Northern Miner by email from New York where he’s based.
“In the case of Burgundy, it’s important to remember that Point Lake was the first diamondiferous kimberlite discovered in the NWT in the early ’90s and it wasn’t put into production until this year. So there is ostensibly a reason why it wasn’t put into production earlier. It’s also important to note that Burgundy is continuing to mine at the Misery underground operation.”
Also good for a positive take is Caitlin Cleveland, the NWT Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment who’s also the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. There may be concerns in communities about the diamond mines but Cleveland says Premier R.J. Simpson’s government is working with local critical mineral ventures to shorten timelines and bend ears in Ottawa to secure funding.
“We have all sat down with those proponents and had the opportunity to ask them, you know, what do you need? What’s your timeline? How do we move the timeline up? How do we work together?” she said by phone from Yellowknife.
The territory’s leading projects include Fireweed Metals’ Mactung, the world’s largest high-grade tungsten project, the Yellowknife lithium project by Li-FT Power, and Fortune Minerals’ Nico project, the biggest primary cobalt deposit in the western world. There are also two brownfield zinc-lead sites preparing for restarts: NorZinc’s Prairie Creek and Appian Capital’s Pine Point being redeveloped by Osisko Metals.
Ocean floor frontier
From the plight of diamonds to the deep blue sea, another mining sector in disarray but looking to right its ship, or at least its submarine, met in Jamaica in July. The International Seabed Authority has been trying to wrangle rules for this new frontier. It claimed significant, though still incomplete, progress after the sessions ended July 25.
However, U.S. President Donald Trump already issued an executive order in April instructing U.S. agencies to fast-track seabed mining permits – enabling The Metals Co. to apply for licences under U.S. law and bypass the ISA’s worldwide regulatory authority.
The likelihood of getting an ISA mining rules deal for the US$20-trillion global opportunity is not about environmental issues – it’s about who’s poised to mine and who isn’t.
The situation pits the U.S., China, Russia, India, Japan and South Korea against laggards the U.K., Mexico, Peru, New Zealand and others, consultants at Arthur D. Little told The Northern Miner by email from Dubai.
“If the mining code is not agreed, it’s reasonable to assume that the U.S will start mining without the code, followed by China and others,” Amer Hage Chahine and Ilya Epikhin said. “Several local country-specific regulations different from each other will prevail – turning the sector into an unregulated wild hunt for resources.”
Back in the Northwest Territories, ministers and potential miners are on their own hunt, for financing that is.
“We have a lot of juniors that operate up here, and so making sure that they have access to the capital in order to move projects forward is critically important,” Cleveland said. “We’ve had the opportunity to sit down with the federal minister and go through those projects and we’re really grateful for how interested they are.”
From Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea to Ice Station Zebra, from nodules to lichen-covered hinterlands, these are the new frontiers for mining projects right now.
“We get pretty excited when we get to talk about them and really push for them, Cleveland said. “We’ve got a lot of cool rocks in the territories.”
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