Ekati’s new plan still sees path to 2040 but keeps cutbacks for now

The Ekati diamond mine’s owners think mining can still continue there for 15 years to come – but the outlook for the near future isn’t great.

Burgundy, which bought the NWT mine in 2023, cut hundreds of jobs last month because its new Point Lake open pit turned out to be “sub-economic” with current diamond prices as low as they are.

The market for rough diamonds has been bleak in recent years as lab-grown diamonds grow in popularity.

Burgundy’s new mine plan for Ekati, published at the end of July, sets out how the company thinks it can keep mining in the years ahead.

According to the plan, Ekati could keep going until 2040 – which Burgundy has said is its long-term goal for the mine – if work to mine underneath the Fox open pit starts as planned in 2026. Underground mining beneath Fox would be expected to deliver its first production ore in 2029 and continue for a little over a decade.

Elsewhere at Ekati, the existing Misery underground mining operation is now expected to continue until the end of 2027. Drilling will take place to establish whether that could be extended into 2028 and beyond. Misery is currently the central plank of productivity at the mine.

If Misery does shut down in 2027, 2028 might be an extremely slow year at Ekati if Fox Underground isn’t yet in production and Point Lake’s open pit does not come back online.

In the new mine plan, Burgundy forecasts that Point Lake mining is “anticipated to resume by mid-2026 subject to diamond prices” – but there’s no guarantee those prices will reach the levels needed for the operation to be viable.

In the meantime, Burgundy says it’s moving its process plant to a two-week-on, two-week-off schedule starting this month until further notice.

The process plant will only ramp up again if and when Point Lake is back in full production, Burgundy stated, meaning a further dialling back of operations at the site for the foreseeable future.

Ottawa ‘looking at all possibilities’

Ekati still employs hundreds of people even after July’s layoffs, many of them northerners, and the mine relies on the services of various northern contractors and Indigenous development corporations.

In an interview last month, industry minister Caitlin Cleveland said she did not yet have detailed information from Burgundy about the number of northerners affected and which communities were bearing the brunt of the jobs lost so far.

“I’m very concerned about what the greater impacts will be,” Cleveland told Cabin Radio.

“Burgundy has advised that at this point, this shift is temporary while they reset their mine plans. I’m going to continue asking questions about that, and continue that relationship with Burgundy, so that I very much understand how temporary and what the future looks like.”

Other than an aspirational mid-2026 restart timeline for Point Lake, the mine plan doesn’t offer much short-term positivity, even as it sets out a long-term future for Ekati.

Prior to the new plan being published, Cleveland said she was lobbying Ottawa for help in making sure workers have jobs to go to. She said doing so was vital so that when the federal government’s planned nation-building projects kick off, the NWT has workers ready to step into those roles.

“We’re seeing a huge focus on the North right now, on the part of the federal government and on the part of Canadians,” the minister said, “and an interest in ensuring that those promises and interests in Arctic sovereignty and Arctic security are really upheld with this new government. For us to be able to achieve those shared goals, we need to preserve that workforce.”

Rebecca Chartrand, the federal minister of northern and Arctic affairs, said she was “aware” of developments at Ekati and the territory’s interest in some form of assistance. Chartrand said she had spoken with cabinet colleague and NWT MP Rebecca Alty about the issue.

“We know that diamond drilling is on the decline in the North and we’ve been talking to minister Alty as well as local MLAs about this situation,” Chartrand said last month after forming part of a Mark Carney-led delegation visiting Inuit leaders in Inuvik, then taking a trip to meet with industry leaders in Yellowknife.

“We want to make sure we’re looking at all possibilities in terms of diversifying the economy in the North,” she said, “and that’s why these conversations we’re having right now are critical.”

Layoffs ‘could have been bigger’

Cleveland said the NWT government is also asking proposed mining projects – the likes of Nico, Nechalacho and Pine Point, all of which are envisaged as future critical minerals mines – what they need “to move into that construction phase” and help prop up the NWT’s economy.

The GNWT has spent time trying to connect those projects with federal or other cash, and is waiting on the results of a new round of federal funding.

Ekati and the other two active diamond mines in the territory, Diavik and Gahcho Kué, have already collectively received millions of dollars in territorial support this year in a bid to keep them open and employing northerners.

Cleveland defended her government’s April decision to offer the mines incentives amounting to about a $15-million bailout, even though that money didn’t prevent Ekati shedding hundreds of jobs three months later.

“We’re looking at something that could have been bigger. We’re looking at something that could have been more drastic,” she said of what has transpired at Ekati to date.

“It also was about signalling to [the mines’] board members support for mining in the Northwest Territories, in an effort to not have operations close on a whim months ago,” said Cleveland.

“I am hoping to see that this is only a temporary impact, and to also not see a ripple impact on our other diamond mines.”