(diamonds.net) - The new owners of the Ekati mine are planning annual production of 5 million carats by 2022 after the deposit spent the past 10 months on care and maintenance. Arctic Canadian Diamond Company took over the operation in December as former owner Dominion Diamond Mines filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2020. Dominion was unable to meet its repayment obligations for debts that had swollen to CAD 1.2 billion ($820 million) when rough sales froze due to Covid-19. Its 40% stake in the Diavik mine remains part of the Dominion bankruptcy proceedings. Arctic, which is made up of three of Dominion’s bondholders — DDJ Capital, Brigade Capital and Western Asset Management — assumed $70 million of Dominion’s debt and injected $85 million of working capital into Ekati. That enabled the mine to resume operations in late January 2021, with the current plan extending operations to 2028, Arctic’s interim president, Rory Moore, told Rapaport News. The full interview with Moore and an analysis about Arctic’s plans are presented in the March issue of the Rapaport Research Report.
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13 october 2026
