MINING DIAMONDS IN CANADA: FROM MINES TO RETAIL
By: Evan Lucyk
Canada is a key player in the diamond trade. It has five diamond mines and three advanced projects in the country, stretching from Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec to the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.
Several diamond reserves play into the country’s economy. Canadian mines produced 23 million carats of diamonds valued at $2.7 billion in 2018. The same year, Canada was the third-largest producer of diamonds both by value and by volume. Canada’s diamond production’s yearly volume spiked to 23.2 million carats in 2017, where it stabilized in 2018.
Diamonds are known for their use as gemstones, but only 20% of the global production by weight is used for jewelry. Diamonds are not only used in jewelry; the remaining 80% are critical for use in industrial and research application environments. As the hardest known material, diamonds are ideal for use as an abrasive in cutting, drilling, grinding, and polishing.
Diamonds are also used to dissipate heat in electronic devices such as computers and diode lamps because of their high thermal conductivity.
EXTRACTING DIAMONDS FROM ORE
Several steps are involved with extracting diamonds from ore: crushing, scrubbing, cyclonic separation plant, recovery, and of course, cleaning, washing, and packaging.
In crushing, ore and gravel are collected into a primary crusher first to break down large chunks and can then be transferred to the secondary crusher (or roll-crusher) to break down the ore further. Excess material is then removed through a scrubbing process and screened to pieces remove pieces smaller than 150mm, as slightly larger chunks are much more manageable to process.
Next, the pieces are put into a ferrosilicon powder and water solution and inserted into a cyclone. The ores tumble, and the ore and diamonds are forced to separate within the cyclone, with the highest density materials sinking to the bottom, resulting in a diamond concentrate. This concentrate then goes through various processes depending on the unique properties of the diamonds. Processes such as x-ray, luminescence, and crystallographic laser fluorescence are used to separate the diamonds. When flashed with lights, diamonds emit light. Based on this, diamonds are detected, and the machine fires blasts of air toward the diamonds to collect them in a box.
Finally, diamonds are often cleaned in an acid solution before being washed, packaged, and sent to their destination.
THE DIAMOND MARKET
During the pandemic, the diamond market has been suffering. Demand for diamonds and engagement rings is down according to Reuters: “In retailer Tiffany & Co’s TIF.N February-April quarter, engagement jewellery was the worst-performing category, with sales almost halving.”
Companies in Canada are feeling the effects of being closed. Renard diamond mine in Quebec, operated by Stornoway Diamonds, was on care and maintenance from March 2020 to September 2020, extending this closure for longer than necessary from the government because of the collapse in global diamond trade due to the pandemic. Now, Renard mine is continuing operations in a challenging diamond market that is slowly beginning to show more demand.
This is not the only trend in diamond sales to look out for. It has become increasingly essential for consumers to see where the gemstones and precious metals in their jewelry originate. Consumers like to see transparent supply chains for raw materials to evaluate the ethics for themselves—especially when diamonds and gold can be sizable investments. For Canadians like us, it’s always great to know that we can access diamonds from our own country, before heading internationally to purchase.