Jobs hang in the balance as Ekati diamond mine in N.W.T.

Canada's diamond mines were never going to operate forever, but the industry's decline has been accelerated by the growing popularity of lab-grown diamonds and U.S. tariffs.

And then there was one. The second of the three diamond mines that have long anchored the Northwest Territories economy is closing after its owner, Australia-based Burgundy Diamond Mines Ltd., failed to find a buyer for its Canadian subsidiary and ran out of funds to keep operating. The premature end of the Ekati Diamond Mine, 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife, follows the long-expected closure in March of Rio Tinto’s Diavik mine, which had reached the end of its planned productive life.

That leaves the Gahcho Kué mine owned by De Beers and Mountain Province as the last diamond mine standing in the N.W.T., and it, too, is preparing to wind down in the coming years. It has been estimated that the trio of diamond mines had made up 20 per cent of the territory’s gross domestic product. They had been a major

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source of employment for local Indigenous communities. “While the closure of a major mine is significant for the N.W.T. economy, the territory continues to have opportunities in resource development, infrastructure, defence investments, housing construction and other sectors,” Robert Jenkins, deputy minister in the territory’s environment ministry, said Wednesday. Jenkins made his remarks a day after the Supreme Court of British Columbia ordered Burgundy’s Canadian arm, Arctic Canadian Diamond Company Ltd., into receivership. Receivership is a legal process where a court appoints a neutral third party to take control of a distressed company to recover amounts owing to creditors and make sure other obligations are met. Get weekly money news The court granted the company protection from creditors in May to give it breathing room to figure out a path to keep Ekati afloat....

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