Ekati Diamond Mine and Stewart Blusson who had been prospecting in the region for almost ten years, having found kimberlite indicator minerals as early as 1985. The Point Lake kimberlite was determined to be uneconomic, but its discovery precipitated one of largest staking rushes in mining history, covering most of the area between Yellowknife and the Arctic coast. There are 156 known kimberlite pipes within the Ekati block of claims, including the Point Lake pipe. Ekati officially began operations on October 14, 1998, and was operated by BHP Billiton Canada Inc., a part of the BHP Billiton Group, the world's largest diversified resources
Venetia Diamond Mine chairman. In 2004 the mine had 955 employees and recovered 7,187,300 carats (1437.5 kg) of diamonds from 5,871,000 metric tons of ore. The Kolope River flows 8 km to the west of the mine. Surface water storage dams have been built on two of its tributaries. Venetia Diamond Mine The Venetia Diamond Mine is South Africa's largest producer of diamonds. It is situated close to the South African town of Alldays in the Limpopo province and is located within the 360 km² Venetia Limpopo Nature Reserve. The open-pit mine is one of De Beers’ six remaining diamond mines in South