Lac de Gras
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Lac de Gras is a lake approximately 300 kilometres north east of Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Lac de Gras was the centre of the diamond rush of the 1990s. There are two working
Lac de Gras
Ekati Diamond Mine
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The Ekati Diamond Mine, often simply called Ekati, was Canada's first surface and underground diamond mine and is owned by Burgundy Diamond Mines. It is located 310 km north-east of Yellowknife, North
Lac de Gras
…Lac de Gras was the centre of the diamond rush of the 1990s. There are two working, and one closed, diamond mines in the area, Diavik Diamond Mine, Ekati Diamond Mine, and the care and maintenance Snap Lake Diamond Mine. It was called Ekati by aboriginal peoples. The lake is ultraoligotrophic but supports a slow-growing…
Ekati mine aerial view, August 2010. Four open pits on four kimberlite pipes may be seen, along with the Ekati airport.
The mining near the Lac de Gras lakes needs the construction of Frozen Dam Cores with heat pipes for creating permafrost. Here, this artificially created frozen ground prevents seepage from a containment pond for tailings.
Heat pipes keep ground frozen and inhibit water transfer into the open pit during mining activities in July 1998.
Metasequoia wood from 53 million years BP, recovered from a kimberlite pipe at Ekati Diamond Mine.