Snap Lake Diamond Mine Snap Lake Diamond Mine Snap Lake Mine is a remote fly-in/fly-out operation located about northeast of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and, according to De Beers, was the first De Beers mine outside of Africa. It was also Canada's first completely underground diamond mine. Construction began with the opening of an access winter road in 2005. By the end of 2013, De Beers had spent US$1.8 billion on construction and mine operation. Of that total, De Beers spent US$1.3 billion with Northwest Territories-based contractors and suppliers, including US$723 million with Aboriginal businesses or joint ventures. The mine began commercial production on January
Crystallographic defects in diamond inclusions. Gray color in some diamonds from the Argyle mine in Australia is often associated with those hydrogen defects, but again, this assignment is yet unproven. When diamonds are grown by the high-pressure high-temperature technique, nickel, cobalt or some other metals are usually added into the growth medium to facilitate catalytically the conversion of graphite into diamond. As a result, metallic inclusions are formed. Besides, isolated nickel and cobalt atoms incorporate into diamond lattice, as demonstrated through characteristic hyperfine structure in electron paramagnetic resonance, optical absorption and photoluminescence spectra, and the concentration of isolated nickel can reach 0.01%. This fact