Jobs hang in the balance as Ekati diamond mine in N.W.T. braces for early closure

An aerial view of the Ekati Diamond mine is shown in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HANDOUT-Burgundy Diamond Mines Ltd (Mandatory Credit)

YELLOWKNIFE — And then there was one.

The second of the three diamond mines that have long anchored the Northwest Territories economy is closing after its owner, Australia-based Burgundy Diamond Mines Ltd., failed to find a buyer for its Canadian subsidiary and ran out of funds to keep operating.

The premature end of the Ekati Diamond Mine, 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife, follows the long-expected closure in March of Rio Tinto’s Diavik mine, which had reached the end of its planned productive life. That leaves the Gahcho Kué mine owned by De Beers and Mountain Province as the last diamond mine standing in the N.W.T., and it, too, is preparing to wind down in the coming years.

It has been estimated that the trio of diamond mines had made up 20 per cent of the territory’s gross domestic product. They had been a major source of employment for local Indigenous communities.

• Latest updates on company news here

“While the closure of a major mine is significant for the N.W.T. economy, the territory continues to have opportunities in resource development, infrastructure, defence investments, housing construction and other sectors,” Robert Jenkins, deputy minister in the territory’s environment ministry, said Wednesday.

Jenkins made his remarks a day after the Supreme Court of British Columbia ordered Burgundy’s Canadian arm, Arctic Canadian Diamond Company Ltd., into receivership.

Receivership is a legal process where a court appoints a neutral third party to take control of a distressed company to recover amounts owing to creditors and make sure other obligations are met.

The court granted the company protection from creditors in May to give it breathing room to figure out a path to keep Ekati afloat.

“Unfortunately, that process did not identify a viable solution that would allow mining operations to continue,” Jenkins said. “As a result, the company’s no longer had the financial capacity to maintain the site.”

Representatives of the court-appointed receiver, PricewaterhouseCoopers, are on the ground at the Ekati mine ensuring safety and environmental protection. PwC is responsible for ensuring an orderly winding down of the mine, where about 360 people had worked.

“It is anticipated going forward that an appropriately sized workforce will remain at the site to support the ongoing care and maintenance and reclamation and closure activities under the direction of the receiver,” Jenkins said.

How many jobs will be retained is part of an “active conversation,” he told reporters later.

A receivership order filed in court Tuesday says PwC has the power to “effect workforce reductions, including layoffs or terminations of the debtors’ employees.”

Burgundy chief executive Jeremy King called the impending closure a “deeply disappointing outcome for Ekati’s workforce, Burgundy’s stakeholders and communities across the Northwest Territories.”

• Latest updates on commodities here

In a statement posted to the Australian Stock Exchange on Wednesday, King added that “Ekati has made an extraordinary contribution to the territory for more than 25 years as a major private-sector employer and through its long-standing relationships with Indigenous communities and local businesses.”

The N.W.T. government holds about $327 million in funds to ensure the Ekati mine is properly maintained, reclaimed and closed.

“We do have a good level of confidence in the amount, but the mine has closed prematurely,” Jenkins said. PwC, along with environmental and technical experts will look at whether costs need to be reassessed.

“The goal is to stay within the reclamation securities that we currently hold.”

The territory has an interim closure plan for the mine from December 2022, but no final document. Burgundy had previously set out a plan hat could have seen Ekati operating as late as 2040.

• Latest economic news on BNNBloomberg.ca

“There’s some good work that’s been done through the interim plan that we can use as a basis going forward, but it is unfortunate that we don’t have a final plan in place,” Jenkins said.

“This is a broader conversation that … we need to have terms of future situations if unfortunate events like this happen.”

Diamond mines were never going to operate forever, but the industry’s decline has been accelerated by the growing popularity of lab-grown diamonds and U.S. tariffs.

Territorial leaders have been setting their sights on critical minerals as a potential longer-term economic driver. That would mean more, but smaller, mines than the diamond mines that have long anchored the territorial economy. Energy and road infrastructure projects in the territory have also been referred to the new federal major projects office for fast-tracked approvals.

---

Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 15, 2026.