The NWT’s Diavik diamond mine remains set to end commercial operations in early 2026, managers said this week.
In recent weeks, two mining executives said they had been told the Rio Tinto-operated mine was set to bring forward its closure date – possibly to later in 2025 – to limit financial losses in a tough market.
The rise of lab-grown diamonds, as opposed to those mined in places like Diavik, has disrupted the industry as lab-grown options become cheaper.
Last month, the president of the World Jewellery Confederation – an industry body for the jewellery sector – said “the very rapid development over the past decade of the lab-grown diamond sector” was one of several factors behind market volatility and falling prices.
In a brief statement to Cabin Radio on Monday, Diavik chief operating officer Matt Breen said “the current mine plan continues to have Diavik’s commercial operations run until early 2026.”
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A Diavik spokesperson said the company could not be more precise about when in 2026 the plan envisaged commercial operations ending.
“The exact date in 2026 is still to be confirmed, so we can’t speak to details at this time,” the spokesperson stated.
In 2023, the company estimated production would end in “the first quarter of 2026.”
Diavik is currently mining beneath its A21 open pit, an underground operation expected to be the last meaningful commercial work at the site.
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Mining at Diavik began in 2003. Alongside its similarly long-lived neighbour Ekati, the mine has been at the heart of the NWT’s economy since it opened.
Work beneath A21 is expected to deliver some two million carats of rough diamonds. Diavik has produced more than 100 million carats in its 20-year life.
In September last year, with closure nearing and prices for rough diamonds dropping, the mine offered voluntary separation to staff in the face of “continued cost pressures.”
