Ekati is Canada's first commercial diamond mine, situated approximately 310 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife in the Lac de Gras region of the Northwest Territories, at roughly 64°N latitude on the edge of the Barren Lands. Opened in October 1998 after one of the most consequential mineral exploration programmes of the twentieth century, Ekati demonstrated that world-class diamond deposits existed beneath the subarctic tundra of northern Canada and fundamentally altered the global supply landscape for gem-quality rough diamonds. At peak production the mine yielded between three and four million carats annually, and its output — spanning colourless to fancy-colour stones — helped establish Canadian provenance certification as a meaningful category in the fine jewellery trade.

Discovery and Geological Background

The story of Ekati begins with a prospecting partnership between geologist Charles Fipke and his colleague Stewart Blusson, who spent years in the 1980s following a trail of indicator minerals — pyrope garnets, chrome diopsides, ilmenites, and chromites — across the Canadian Shield. Kimberlite pipes, the primary host rock for diamonds, shed these distinctive minerals as glaciers transport and disperse them downstream; Fipke and Blusson worked backwards along glacial drift to locate the source. Their persistence led, in 1991, to the staking of claims at Lac de Gras and the subsequent identification of the kimberlite pipe later named Point Lake, followed rapidly by the discovery of the economically critical Fox pipe. BHP Minerals (later BHP Billiton) acquired a majority interest and financed the feasibility studies and construction that brought Ekati into production.

The Ekati property hosts numerous kimberlite pipes of varying grade and size. The most productive historically include the Fox, Koala, Koala North, Panda, Misery, and Pigeon pipes. Kimberlite at Ekati is geologically classified within the Lac de Gras kimberlite field, which formed during Late Cretaceous magmatic activity approximately 53–75 million years ago. Diamond grades across the pipes vary considerably — from less than one carat per hundred tonnes in lower-grade bodies to commercially attractive grades in the primary pipes — and the diamonds themselves originate from mantle depths consistent with lithospheric keels beneath the ancient Slave Craton, one of the world's oldest and most stable Archaean cratons.

Mining Operations and Ownership History

Ekati began as an open-pit operation on the Fox pipe, subsequently transitioning to underground mining as surface reserves were exhausted. The mine's remote location — accessible by ice road in winter and by air year-round — demands a self-contained infrastructure including an airstrip, accommodation facilities, water management systems, and power generation. Environmental management in a region of continuous permafrost and sensitive freshwater ecosystems has been a defining operational challenge throughout the mine's history.

Ownership of Ekati has passed through several hands since BHP Billiton's founding role. The Canadian retail jeweller Dominion Diamond Corporation (DDC) acquired BHP's interest in stages, completing full ownership of the Ekati Diamond Mine by 2013. Washington Companies subsequently acquired Dominion Diamond Mines (DDM) in 2017. Following financial difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic, the mine was acquired in 2021 by Arctic Canadian Diamond Company (ACDC), a privately held entity that has continued operations and development of additional pipe resources, including the Sable and Jay pipes, the latter representing a significant underground extension of the orebody.

Diamond Quality and Characteristics

Ekati's production encompasses a broad range of diamond qualities. The majority of gem-quality output is colourless to near-colourless, falling within the D-to-J colour range familiar to the trade, though the mine is also known for producing fancy-colour diamonds including yellows and, more rarely, pinks and blues. Crystal morphology tends toward octahedral and macle (twinned) forms typical of kimberlitic diamonds. A proportion of production is of industrial or near-gem quality, as is common across most kimberlite operations.

The diamonds from Ekati's various pipes are not uniform in character. The Misery pipe, for instance, developed a reputation for producing a higher proportion of Type IIa stones — chemically pure diamonds with exceptional transparency — while other pipes yield more typical Type Ia material containing nitrogen aggregates. Such pipe-by-pipe variation is characteristic of kimberlite fields worldwide and has practical implications for sorting, valuation, and marketing.

Canadian Origin Certification and Market Impact

Perhaps Ekati's most enduring contribution to the gem trade lies not in carats alone but in the concept it helped pioneer: verifiable country-of-origin certification for diamonds. When Ekati opened in 1998, consumer interest in conflict-free sourcing was already growing in response to concerns about diamonds financing civil conflicts in parts of Africa. Canadian diamonds — mined under strict federal and territorial environmental regulations, with documented chain of custody from mine to market — offered a compelling alternative narrative.

BHP Billiton introduced the CanadaMark programme (subsequently continued under later ownership) to laser-inscribe a unique identification number and the Canadian maple leaf symbol on the girdle of qualifying polished diamonds, enabling traceability back to the Ekati source. This approach influenced broader industry efforts, including the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme established in 2003, and set a precedent for origin-specific branding that has since been adopted for diamonds from other ethically positioned sources. Retailers in North America, Europe, and Japan developed dedicated Canadian diamond programmes, with Ekati-origin stones commanding modest premiums in certain market segments.

Environmental and Regulatory Context

Operating within the Northwest Territories places Ekati under a comprehensive regulatory framework administered by federal and territorial authorities, including environmental assessment processes overseen by the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board. The mine operates under water licences that govern the management of open-pit dewatering and tailings, with particular attention to protecting the Lac de Gras watershed. Reclamation bonding requirements oblige the operator to fund eventual site restoration, a financial assurance mechanism that has become standard practice for Canadian mining operations.

Indigenous consultation and benefit agreements with Tłı̨chǫ (Dogrib), Yellowknives Dene, Kitikmeot Inuit, and other affected communities have formed part of the mine's social licence since its inception, reflecting the territorial government's requirements and the legal obligations arising from Crown consultation duties under Canadian constitutional law.

Relationship to Diavik and the Lac de Gras Field

Ekati's success directly catalysed the development of the neighbouring Diavik Diamond Mine, located approximately 35 kilometres to the southeast and operated by Rio Tinto (with a minority interest held by Dominion Diamond Mines). Diavik began production in 2003 and, together with Ekati, established the Lac de Gras region as the centre of Canadian diamond production. The two mines share the same broad geological setting — kimberlites emplaced into Archaean basement of the Slave Craton — but differ in pipe morphology, with Diavik's pipes situated beneath Lac de Gras itself, requiring the construction of a substantial dike to allow open-pit mining below the lake surface. A third significant operation, the Gahcho Kué mine (a De Beers and Mountain Province Diamonds joint venture), opened in 2016 some 280 kilometres southeast of Yellowknife, further cementing the Northwest Territories' status as a tier-one diamond jurisdiction.

Legacy and Current Status

After more than two decades of continuous production, Ekati remains an operating mine under Arctic Canadian Diamond Company, with ongoing underground development extending the productive life of existing pipes. The mine's legacy is threefold: it proved the commercial viability of Canadian arctic diamond mining; it introduced rigorous origin-traceability practices that influenced industry standards globally; and it demonstrated that a high-cost, high-regulation operating environment could nonetheless produce diamonds competitive on world markets. For gemmologists and trade professionals, Ekati-origin diamonds represent a well-documented provenance with a clear chain of custody — a distinction of increasing relevance as consumer demand for transparency in the diamond supply chain continues to grow.

Further Reading

• GIA Gems & Gemology — Canadian Diamonds (Winter 2002)
• GIA Research: Diamonds from Canada