Resource World Magazine

O C T O B E R / N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 8 www.resourceworld.com 29 BIOGRAPHY on Singapore. I actually slept in the same room as he did." Schiller also made an attempt to visit the infamous Bre-X proj- ect in Borneo. "I rented a plane in Balikpapan but was refused access to the project site because the Bre-X scam was being exposed," said Schiller. "I had malaria several times in Brazil and thanks to my wife, who is a nurse, recovered," Schiller mused. "I was a director of Athabasca Potash which was taken over by BHP several years ago," said Schiller. "BHP is in the process of putting the Jensen Lake potash property in Saskatchewan into pro - duction; however, it is now on hold pending higher potash prices." But it was back in Canada's Northwest Territories that an event, that took place in September 1991, changed his life and launched a new and important industrial sector for the country – diamond mining. Schiller was Vice President of Exploration for Dia Met Minerals when his drill intersected Canada's first diamond-bearing kim - berlite pipe at Point Lake in the Lac de Gras region of the NWT; however, it was the contributions of a number of others led up to that fateful moment. These included mastermind geologist Chuck Fipke, his son Mark, partner geologist Stuart Blusson, geologist Hugo Dummett, geophysicist Ray Ashley and Chuck's ex-wife Marlene. All these people contributed in their own way to Schiller delivering the goods that resulted in the still-produc - ing Ekati diamond mine. Before the Lac de Gras discovery, not many Canadian geolo- gists were familiar with diamonds and they were mostly ignored in geology courses at Canadian universities but they were learning quickly. The NWT is an ancient and cold craton that is prospective for diamonds that held a few secrets that took a while to figure out. One was that there are diamond indicator minerals in much greater abundance than the diamonds themselves such as chrome diop - sides and G10 garnets that were scraped off the tops of kimberlite pipes, the host rock of diamonds, by glaciers and scattered in trails, or fans, that can lead geologists back to the source. Another fact is that when the kilometres-thick glaciers slowly moved across the tundra, the tops of the soft, round kimberlite pipes were gouged out to form present-day lakes – thereby hiding the diamond-bearing pipes beneath round lakes. During the Dia Met/BHP exploration program, every day Chuck Fipke would call Schiller on the very public radiotele - phone and ask in their code, "Did you catch any fish today?" The answer was always "No" until Schiller's night shift driller told him that they had encountered a strange looking, rather soft rock. "I knew they must have intersected kimberlite before I even saw the core," said Schiller. This time, when Fipke asked if Ed had caught any fish, his now-famous reply was, "Chuck, we just caught the biggest f**kin' fish you ever saw!" Many mining stock investors – geologists too – just didn't believe it and, to their regret, didn't buy any Dia Met stock. However, the diamond discovery was true and led to the biggest staking rush in Canadian history. Over 250 companies staked claims covering a land area in the Northwest Territories almost the size of Europe. Kimberlite pipes often occur in clusters and many pipes were found on the Dia Met/BHP ground. The Ekati discovery, now controlled by Dominion Diamond Corp., was eventually followed by the nearby Aber Resources Diavik diamond mine discovery and a few others. Today, the Koala, Lynx, Misery, Pigeon and Sable kimberlites are actively mined at the Ekati Mine. The current mine life of Ekati, including the Misery underground and the Jay Project, is expected to run until 2034. The Fox Deep Project could extend Ekati life to 2042. Production to January 2017 is about 67.8 million carats. Valued at $2 billion in 2016, Canada was the world's third largest diamond producer by value (11.3%) and the fifth largest producer by volume (9.7%). Ed is still a director of one public company – Desert Mountain Energy. He sold his vineyard in 2017 and has reduced his con - sulting business to one company, Lithoquest Diamonds, which is exploring a diamond project in Western Australia. He writes a col- umn for a US resource magazine and continues to be a Contributing Editor for Resource World. His palate for wine remains and, at 84, Ed is aging like a fine wine. n

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