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Until the late 1990s, the existence of Arctic diamonds was nature’s secret that has been hidden from mankind for billions of years. Though their existence is no longer a secret to the professionals within the diamond industry, for individuals outside of the industry, it is a relatively a fresh term.
THE SILK ROAD DIAMONDS
The Silk Road Diamonds were first discovered in India and have been traded within since as early as 6th Century BC. Until the discovery of diamonds in 18th Century Brazil, India was known to be the sole source of diamonds worldwide. It is believed that diamonds found their way out of India via the ancient trading route that connected the eastern and western world. By the 15th century, diamond jewelry was popular among the European ruling elites.
FROM BRAZIL TO AFRICA
From Brazil to Africa The first diamonds discovered outside of India were found by Brazilian gold miners during the early 18th Century. With the depletion of diamond sources in India, Brazil dominated the diamond market for more than 150 years. Many years later in 1866 a fifteen-year-old boy named Erasmus Jacobs found a transparent rock on the family farm which was located on the south bank of the Orange River in South Africa. The discovery changed the diamond industry forever. In 1888, British entrepreneur Cecil Rhodes established De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited in South Africa that dominated the diamond market for the next 100 years. The global annual diamond production sky rocketed from less than one million carats in 1870 to over 100 million carats by 1990.
ALLUVIAL TO KIMBERLITE
Since the diamonds had been extracted from rivers and riverbanks in India and Brazil, the source of diamonds remained a mystery. It was widely accepted that diamonds are only from alluvial sources; that are mined from shallow deposits. The belief remained the same as the diamond rush in South Africa began. However, some diamond miners discovered diamond deposits miles away from river digging in South Africa. They initially used the term “dry digging” to extracting diamonds from those sources and paid little attention as the river sources were at their prime. As the yield from river digging declined, miners paid more attention to the dry sources. To their surprise, they discovered the true source of diamond which was later given the name kimberlite, after the mining town Kimberly in South Africa where the first kimberlite pipes were discovered. The discovery of kimberlite was a giant leap in diamond industry as miners found a new way to discover diamond deposits.
With the discovery of kimberlite, diamond prospectors started searching for kimberlite sources. Discovery of diamond carrying, kimberlite pipes soon brought new diamond suppliers to the market. Currently, Russia is the largest producer of diamonds and around 20 more countries produce diamonds at industrial level.
ARCTIC DIAMONDS
Perhaps the most exciting event in the mining industry for the last 50 years is the discovery of the Arctic diamonds. The discovery ignited the largest staking rush in North America after the Gold Rush that occurred hundreds of years earlier. Chuck Fipke and Stewart Blusson were the two courageous geologists behind this discovery.
It all began when Fipke and Blusson teamed up to form Dia Met Minerals in 1981 after completion of a futile kimberlite search in Colorado. Blusson, being a pilot, allowed the geologists entry into arctic regions with a floatplane to begin sampling. After searching for eight years without a single diamond discovered, Dia Met Minerals' stock was traded for pennies.
In 1991 the two geologists found the first Canadian kimberlite pipe in Lac de Gras. In 1998, BHP Billiton teamed up with Dia Met Minerals to open the first Canadian diamond mine, the EKATI mine. In 2003, Rio Tinto opened Davik mine. Diamond behemoth DeBeers joined the Arctic diamond club in 2008 opening the Snap Lake mine. In 2016, De Beers and Mountain Province Diamonds began production of Gahcho Kué the world’s largest, new diamond mine. Currently, Canada is the third largest diamond producer in value.