Tundra Ice
No, not the frozen water variety. The diamonds are a girl's best friend kind. Very suddenly, Canada has become a major player in the diamond mining world. They rank third in the world ever since the first discovery in 1991 (the first mine opened in 1998). It is very big business up North.
The booming industry is replacing the stigma of "blood diamonds" mined in conflict zones with images of polar bears and maple leaves engraved on snow-pure gems.
The riches have brought a juggernaut of men and machines to the remote tundra. They came to a place with no roads, towns or electricity, and brutal winters. Now giant machines screw into the permafrost, moving and sifting tons of rock 24 hours a day.
The territorial government is cheering them on. "Diamond mining is critical for us," Brendan Bell, the local minister of industry, said from the capital, Yellowknife. "We don't want to be a one-trick pony. But if you have to be reliant on one industry, diamonds are perfect."
In 2005, even before the Jericho mine opened in the adjoining territory of Nunavut, Canada's first two big diamond mines in the Northwest Territories unearthed 15 pounds of the gemstones, worth $4 million, each day……
…….In 1998, the BHP mine was the first to open at the site of Canada's original 1991 discovery by geologist Charles Fipke and a partner, Stewart Blusson. Fipke spent decades pursuing diamonds around the world. Abandoned by companies and a wife who tired of his obsession, he borrowed money from friends and sold stock to neighbors, offering only hope.
Like a detective, he sleuthed out purple garnets and emerald-green chrome diopsides that might accompany diamonds, refined his hunches about where the glaciers might have picked them up, and eventually solved the mystery by drilling near the frigid shores of Lac de Gras, 200 miles northeast of Yellowknife.
Other prospectors moved in quickly after him. Small exploration companies flocked to Yellowknife, rented anything that could fly and raced into the wilderness to plant wooden stakes marking their claims. The Diavik mine, 20 miles from Fipke's find, was staked out under the waters of Lac de Gras and opened in 2003.
"It was a surprising time. We lived through the largest staking rush the world has seen," said Yellowknife Mayor Gordon Van Tighem. "There were bales of stakes around town. The local construction companies were churning them out, running out of wood. With the gold mines petering out, it came along at a very good time for us."
It is actually a rather interesting article. There are, predictably, environmentalist protests. But it's interesting that these mines help alleviate the demand for "blood diamonds". This is one of those trade-offs that seem to be more positive for the world than negative.
Economy, Environment | Gaius Monday, 5 March , 2007
