Hundreds of employees and contractors working at Ekati Diamond Mine have been laid off after the mine's owner announced it was suspending open pit mining.
that mining the Point Lake kimberlite pipe had become "sub-economic" because diamond prices have reached record lows, according to a statement from Ariella Calin, a spokesperson for Burgundy Diamond Mines, Ekati's parent company.
Calin also said Burgundy will continue to maintain the open pit so that operations can start again quickly if the economic situation gets better.
The Misery underground mine, located about two kilometres away from Point Lake, will continue and that its "production rates have significantly improved in recent months" with new mining techniques and equipment. Underground operations haven't been affected by the announcement.
NNSL Media spoke with Industry, Tourism and Investment Minister Caitlin Cleveland on Wednesday at an event in Yellowknife about the announcement made by Burgundy.
She said she spoke with senior management at Burgundy earlier in the day Wednesday about what was going on and is waiting to see what the ultimate impact will be.
"We are a resource-extraction territory (and) we rely heavily on these kinds of jobs," she said. "We're also making sure we work in conjunction with one another because it's important to afford supports and I'm keen to keep working with the industry."
She added that the news was unexpected, but she said there are other industries that could jump in to help those workers who have been affected by what happened.
"There are other signals out there of opportunities to maintain our Northern workforce," she said. "It does give me hope, but it depends on what roles those people coming out of Ekati might be able to fill. Some people may want to leave the NWT, but our efforts are around maintaining our workforce as much as possible."
Speculation about the future of Ekati ramped up when Burgundy ,
The news comes a few months after the territorial government injected millions of dollars as temporary relief measures to support its diamond mining sector. It specifically lowered the 2025 property tax rate for mines, giving a little more than $11 million in tax relief to the Diavik, Ekati and Gahcho Kue diamond mines.
Finance Minister Caroline Wawzonek has previously stated that 2024 saw hefty losses among all three mines, totalling around $300 million dollars. Ekati lost about in particular.
Diamond mines employ more than 1,000 Northerners and contribute about a fifth to the NWT鈥檚 gross domestic product, according to the GNWT.
Ekati has been in operation since 1998 and was first operated by BHP, an Australian mining firm. Since it opened, it's passed through many different hands. Burgundy is also based in Australia and in 2023 for $186 million. Arctic Canadian acquired the mine from Dominion Diamonds after it filed for insolvency protection in April 2020. Prior to that, the Washington Companies, a private entity, purchased Ekati for (US)$1.2 billion in November 2017.
According to its 2024 economic report, 1,242 people were employed at the mine: 700 direct employees and 542 contractors. Sixty per cent of those employees were Northern Indigenous.
The mine life was currently projected to expire as of 2028, however, ongoing exploration had the possibility to extend that by as much as 25 years.
In 2024, former Burgundy Diamond Mines CEO Kim Truter told NNSL Media that there was the possibility of at least another quarter-century of mine life and beyond.
Truter of five additional projects, including extended work at Ekati鈥檚 Misery, Sable and Fox sites, and the continued expansion of Point Lake, its newest open pit. Burgundy was also seeking permission to turn Sable into an underground operation.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been going for 25 years, and there鈥檚 probably still another 25 years to go,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 our long-term goal.鈥�
Truter retired in May this year and was replaced by Jeremy King.
