The Ekati property covers 344,000 hectares, with the land lease area being 10,960 hectares and is located in Northwest Territories, Canada. Ekati Diamond Mine is located 200 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories (NWT) of Canada, being Canada’s first diamond mine. Ekati Diamond Mine is operated by BHP Billiton.
Ekati Diamond Mine is Canada’s first surface and underground diamond mine that officially began operations on 14 October 1998. Located approximately 310 km northeast of Yellowknife, the mine operates in an area of continuous permafrost and is accessible only by air, with the exception of winter road access, available only for approximately 10 weeks each year by ice road.
To date, 156 kimberlite pipes have been discovered on Ekati’s claim block with mining that includes both open pit and underground operations. The Panda and Koala pits are underground mines with open-cut mining occurring in the Fox and Beartooth pits.
Mining and processing activities are continuous 24/7 operations. Mined ore is crushed, scrubbed and ground to release diamonds from the surrounding kimberlite. Diamonds are then separated from non-diamond material using wet high-intensity magnetic separators, wet and dry particle X-ray sorters, drier and grease table.
The diamonds are shipped to BHP Billiton’s Sorting and Valuation Facility in Yellowknife for cleaning, sizing, basic sorting and government valuation, prior to their sale to NWT manufacturers and international manufacturers and traders through BHP Billiton’s sales office in Antwerp, Belgium.
Ekati has produced an average of approximately 3.0 million carats of rough diamonds annually over the last three years. Annual sales from Ekati represent around three per cent of current world rough diamond supply by weight and six per cent by value.