Ekati’s relatively new owners have suggested the NWT diamond mine could remain operational well into the 2030s in an upbeat start-of-year letter to shareholders.
Australian company Burgundy bought Ekati last summer in a deal valued at almost $200 million.
In a letter published this week, chief executive Kim Truter said Ekati “still contains one of the largest undeveloped diamond resources in the world” and had processed a higher tonnage at its plant in 2023 than any other year since 2013.
Truter said Burgundy had also “developed an exciting new conceptual life-of-mine plan for Ekati that will potentially extend operations towards 2040.”
That isn’t the first time extending Ekati’s life up to 2040 has been discussed. In the early 2000s, then-owner BHP had a Vision 2040 program with that exact goal in mind. But more recently, Ekati has been operating with a projected mine life extending only to the late 2020s or early 2030s.
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One possibility to prolong the mine’s life is flooding old open pits then mining their lower recesses with underwater crawlers, an option Burgundy says it continues to explore.
Truter said other work to keep Ekati open toward 2040 would include extension of underground mining work at the Misery site, moving to underground operations at the Sable and Fox sites and “optimizing” the Point Lake project, which is Ekati’s newest open pit.
What those changes might mean for staffing levels at the mine is a different matter.
Remotely operating underwater crawlers, for example, could require far fewer workers than a conventional open pit.
The territory’s two other operating diamond mines – Diavik and Gahcho Kué – are expected to cease operations in 2026 and 2030 respectively.
Diamond mining remains central to the NWT’s economy despite efforts to improve the wealth generated by other forms of mining, tourism and even public-private conservation partnerships.
