Mining Resumes at Ekati, after 10-Month Shutdown
January 25, 21
(IDEX Online) - Operations have finally resumed at the Ekati mine, in Canada, 10 months after it was closed at the start of the global pandemic.
At the time owners Dominion Diamond Mines warned the 1,800 employees that it could be months before they returned to work.
In the interim the company entered insolvency protection, and last month it agreed to sell the mine to investment managers acting for its creditors. The sale is due to be completed within days.
Dominion, the world's third biggest supplier of diamonds by carat, expects all recalled employees to be back to work by today.
It announced in November that 60 furloughed employees at Ekati (pictured) were being recalled, in the hope that operations would resume soon.
Dominion also jointly owns 40 per cent of the nearby Diavik mine - which is not being sold - with Rio Tinto.