The Northwest Territories’ Diavik diamond mine had its final day of ore production on Tuesday, March 24.
Cabin Radio broadcast live from Diavik between 6am and 9am on Wednesday, March 25 to mark the transition of the mine into closure. You can use the form at the foot of this page to send us your thoughts as active mining ends.
Diavik held its formal opening ceremony on July 19, 2003, making it almost 23 years old.
“After the mined ore is processed by the end of March, Diavik will have successfully completed its planned operations, ending 23 years and more than 150 million carats of diamond production,” Rio Tinto stated in a brief advisory earlier this month.
“The mine will then move into decommissioning and its active closure phase.”
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Diavik plans to spend from 2026 to 2029 completing closure of the site.
Diavik has been working on closure for years alongside active mining – an approach the mine calls “progressive reclamation.” That means the closure period is set to be much shorter than for some other mines, and an approved final plan for that work is in place.
By 2029, Diavik expects to start a “post-closure monitoring” period until 2040, after which it hopes to relinquish the land. There probably won’t be an active presence at the site after 2030.
The NWT’s two operating diamond mines are now Ekati and Gahcho Kué, each of which is in financial difficulty as the market for natural diamonds craters in the face of tariffs and cheaper, lab-grown alternatives.
