Ekati Diamond Mine sorting and selling operations in Canada, Belgium, and India. Ekati Diamond Mine The Ekati Diamond Mine ("Ekati") is Canada's first surface and underground diamond mine. It is located north-east of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and about south of the Arctic Circle, near Lac de Gras. Until 2014 Ekati was a joint venture between Dominion Diamond Mines (80%), and the two geologists who discovered kimberlite pipes north of Lac de Gras, Chuck Fipke and Stewart Blusson each holding a 10% stake in the mine, until Fipke sold his share to Dominion. The first volcanic pipe found in the Lac de Gras region
Permafrost down to . Discontinuous permafrost is often further divided into "extensive discontinuous permafrost", where permafrost covers between 50 and 90 percent of the landscape and is usually found in areas with mean annual temperatures between , and "sporadic permafrost", where permafrost cover is less than 50 percent of the landscape and typically occurs at mean annual temperatures between . In soil science, the sporadic permafrost zone is abbreviated SPZ and the extensive discontinuous permafrost zone DPZ. Exceptions occur in "un-glaciated" Siberia and Alaska where the present depth of permafrost is a relic of climatic conditions during glacial ages where winters