The Ekati diamond mine is Canada’s first diamond mine, located some 100 kilometers south of the North Pole and 300 kilometers north of Yellowknife, the mining city.
The mine was discovered in 1989 by two geologists, Charles Fipke and Stewart Blusson, and is comprised of the first five profitable open pits discovered in the country – Panda, Koala, Fox, Misery and Sable.
Today, 80% of the Ekati diamond mine belongs to diamond mining giant BHP Billiton, while the remaining 20% is divided between the two geologists who discovered the diamond mine.
In 1998, after developing the asset, BHP started to market rough diamonds mostly from Panda, the most yielding open pit, which produces very good quality diamonds.
Ekati’s annual diamond sales amount to 3% in weight and 6% in value of the overall global annual sales of rough diamonds.
