Canada's first mine, which belongs to the BHP/Diamet Minerals group, has already gone in to production from September 1998 in its northwest territory region. The second mine, that is being developed in its close proximity in the same region, is expected to go into production in the next two years.

It belongs to the Rio Tinto/Abers group. According to estimates, the two mines together will account for about 10 per cent of the world production of rough diamonds.

The third diamond mine is likely to be developed in the Alberta region of Canada, looking to the progress of explorations there so far. A cluster of kimberlites has been discovered there almost accidentally. It would appear that when the Alberta Energy Company Ltd was conducting aromagnetic surveys in the Alberta region for oil and gas, it accidentally discoveredexistence of kimberlites in that area. This led to the location of 10 kimberlites in 1997. Some more kimberlites have been discovered in 1998, leading to the discovery of 23 kimberlites in all so far.

Pure Gold Minerals and Ashton Mining of Canada also joined this venture subsequently, AEC and Ashton are both having 42.5 stake each in this venture, while Pure Gold owns the balance.

Of the 23 kimberlites discovered so far, k-14 which is being bulk-sampled looks quite promising. Samples examined so far have shown the presence of commercial-sized diamonds with the plus 0.8 mm stone content ranging upto 43 carts per hundred tonnes. The largest diamond recovered from the K-14 so far weighs 1.31 carats. The samples results todate show a high degree of variability in diamond content over relatively short distances and this coupled with the encouraging results to date, has prompted the collection of larger samples. The results of this exercise are awaited.

Some other kimbirlites have also provided encouragingresults. The kimbirlites K-91 has provided one of the highest microdiamond counts among the kimberlites tested in the region so far. Subsequent sample-testing has confirmed the presence of larger stones in K-91 with an average plus 0.8 mm diamond content. Additional information is being collected on diamond content and distribution.