Lac de Gras Lac de Gras Lac de Gras is a lake approximately north east of Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Lac de Gras was the centre of the diamond rush of the 1990s. There are two working, and one closed, diamond mines in the area, Diavik Diamond Mine, Ekati Diamond Mine, and the care and maintenance Snap Lake Diamond Mine. It was called Ekati by aboriginal peoples. The lake is ultraoligotrophic but supports a slow-growing but stable population of some eight species of cold-water fishes, including round whitefish, cisco, and lake trout. Lake trout dominate the lake, both numerically and
Ekati Diamond Mine 62-million-year-old kimberlite pipes (Creaser et al., 2004) of the Lac de Gras kimberlite field, most of which lie underneath shallow lakes. Between 1998 and 2009, the mine has produced 40 million carats () of diamonds out of six open pits. As the high grade ore close to surface was depleted, development was completed to access the ore utilizing underground methods. Currently, there is one underground operation (Koala) with open-cut mining occurring in Fox Pit. The mine's current annual production is estimated to be approximately 7.5 million carats () of diamonds. Ekati supplies rough diamonds to the global market through its