Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/638235
30 www.resourceworld.com f e b r u a r y / m a r c h 2 0 1 6 While it didn't generate a major staking rush at the time, it was diamond mining giant De Beers that actually found the first diamonds in Canada. While working for De Beers Exploration in 1987, university student Brad Wood, discovered kimberlite boulders (the host rock of diamonds) along the Attawapiskat River in the James Bay region of northern Ontario. It was the first economic diamond discovery in Canada that eventually led to De Beers building the Victor open pit diamond mine which commenced production in 2008. The com- pany has been working in Canada for more than 50 years covering most of the country. Four years later Kelowna, BC-based Dia Met Minerals drilled the discovery hole on September 9, 1991 at Point Lake 20 km southeast of the operating Ekati Mine that opened in 1998 and the nearby Diavik Mine that opened in 2003 in the Northwest Territories. I had the pleasure of supervising the drill hole at Point Lake that precipitated the larg- est staking rush in the history of Canadian mineral exploration. But the real credit goes to Chuck Fipke who spearheaded the efforts of the Ekati discovery by Dia Met that led to the foundation of a very lucrative dia- mond mining industry in Canada. From that event, diamond explora- tion spread to the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Québec and Nunavut Territory and throughout the NWT that entirely or, in part, were underlain by an ancient cra- ton or Precambrian Shield that was the precursor for hosting diamond-bearing kimberlites (see map). In fact, over 250 companies joined the rush. Additional mines were being discovered: at Snap Lake, NWT, (opened in 2008 by De Beers), NWT and Renard, Québec – the lat- ter of the two forecast to be commissioned to start production in the second half of 2016. Two advanced exploration projects in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut continue to show promising results that indicate one or both could become oper- ating mines within five years or more. In Saskatchewan two diamond projects are in DiAmonDs in CAnADA already established as a major world producer of diamonds, Canada has more mines under development and promising exploration projects by Dr. Edward Schiller