Study Shows Canada Major Diamond Player
January 14, 04
A new study of the billion-dollar global diamond industry shows Canada has become a major player in the international diamond scene, which is giving an economic boost to the country’s Northwest Territories.
Canada quickly became the world’s
third largest producer of diamonds
In the 1998-2002 period, companies mined about 13.8 million carats of diamonds worth $2.8 billion in the remote region.
Recent production data suggest that by the end of 2003, Canada will have produced almost 15 percent of the world's diamond supply, making it the third largest producer of diamonds behind Botswana and Russia.
Since the 1991 discovery of diamonds at Point Lake near Lac de Gras in the Northwest Territories, two diamond mines have begun production with a third expected to start producing in 2005 and a fourth by 2006.
As a result of the diamond boom, economic output in the Northwest Territories surged 5.1 percent in 2002, led by the Ekati mine running at full capacity and construction of the Diavik mine that is nearing completion.
Diamond mining accounts for just over 20 percent of the Northwest Territories' gross domestic product.
From 1998 to 2001, the number of employees directly involved in diamond mining increased almost seven-fold from just over 90 to more than 700. More recent figures indicate that about 2,200 jobs are related to diamond mining.
The average salary for all workers employed in the diamond mining industry in the Northwest Territories from 1998 to 2001 was $61,639, while the average for production employees, those involved in the mining operations, was slightly higher at $64,336.