Geological, Geochemical and Geophysical Exploration for Diamonds in Yukon
The world production of diamonds in 1990 was more than 100 million carats (metric carats, or CM; 1 carat = 0.2 grams), compared to 75 million in 1985, and 15 million in 1950. This represents a more than 14% per year growth rate. The value of 1990 production was about US$4.5 billion (1992 US$), and diamond is the fourth-ranked commodity in the world in terms of value, after Fe, Au, Cu, and Zn. Primary sources of diamonds are the mantle-derived igneous rocks eclogite and peridotite, brought to the surface by rare ultrabasic magmas, kimberlite and lamproite being the most common. Secondary diamond deposits, such as the marine deposits of southwest Africa, are derived from primary sources by weathering processes that acted for several million years to transport and concentrate diamonds at favourable localities.
Of approximately 5,000 known kimberlites world-wide, fewer than 50 are or have been mined successfully. There have been fewer than 15 major producers (more than 3 million carats/year), with only 6 major discoveries made in the last 50 years. The Point Lake pipe, the first discovered in the Lac De Gras kimberlite field in Canada's Northwest Territories, is potentially another major poducing pipe. The Point Lake discovery is a clear success story in diamond exploration, and as such, it is given a brief review here. As the surrounding kimberlite field is still undergoing exploration, the information available is incomplete, and estimates of the importance of diamond deposits are preliminary. However, initial results at the time of writing indicate strong potential for one or several diamond mines to be developed in the Northwest Territories.
Why explore for diamonds in North America? - North America has the largest craton and stable platform area in the world. - Relative to Siberia and South Africa, hundreds of kimberlites remain to be discovered. - North America is underexplored for diamonds. - Large gem diamonds have been found as alluvials in North America. - Several areas are known to have favourable mineral chemistry. - Operating costs of open-pit kimberlite mines are very low. - Capital costs are similar to other mines; tailings are non-acid generating, and no strong chemicals are used during extraction. - Transport costs for final products are negligible. - Diamond prices generally increase at a level that keeps pace or exceeds inflation. - The occasional large diamond found during production can be regarded as a bonus (a 100-carat flawless gem can be sold for about US$1.7 million).
Datasets available for download
Additional Info
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| Last Updated | October 20, 2025, 02:22 (UTC) |
| Created | October 20, 2025, 02:22 (UTC) |
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Domain / Topic
Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.
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Title
Title for the Dataset.
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Geological, Geochemical and Geophysical Exploration for Diamonds in Yukon |
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Description
A description of the dataset.
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The world production of diamonds in 1990 was more than 100 million carats (metric carats, or CM; 1 carat = 0.2 grams), compared to 75 million in 1985, and 15 million in 1950. This represents a more than 14% per year growth rate. The value of 1990 production was about US$4.5 billion (1992 US$), and diamond is the fourth-ranked commodity in the world in terms of value, after Fe, Au, Cu, and Zn. Primary sources of diamonds are the mantle-derived igneous rocks eclogite and peridotite, brought to the surface by rare ultrabasic magmas, kimberlite and lamproite being the most common. Secondary diamond deposits, such as the marine deposits of southwest Africa, are derived from primary sources by weathering processes that acted for several million years to transport and concentrate diamonds at favourable localities. Of approximately 5,000 known kimberlites world-wide, fewer than 50 are or have been mined successfully. There have been fewer than 15 major producers (more than 3 million carats/year), with only 6 major discoveries made in the last 50 years. The Point Lake pipe, the first discovered in the Lac De Gras kimberlite field in Canada's Northwest Territories, is potentially another major poducing pipe. The Point Lake discovery is a clear success story in diamond exploration, and as such, it is given a brief review here. As the surrounding kimberlite field is still undergoing exploration, the information available is incomplete, and estimates of the importance of diamond deposits are preliminary. However, initial results at the time of writing indicate strong potential for one or several diamond mines to be developed in the Northwest Territories. Why explore for diamonds in North America? - North America has the largest craton and stable platform area in the world. - Relative to Siberia and South Africa, hundreds of kimberlites remain to be discovered. - North America is underexplored for diamonds. - Large gem diamonds have been found as alluvials in North America. - Several areas are known to have favourable mineral chemistry. - Operating costs of open-pit kimberlite mines are very low. - Capital costs are similar to other mines; tailings are non-acid generating, and no strong chemicals are used during extraction. - Transport costs for final products are negligible. - Diamond prices generally increase at a level that keeps pace or exceeds inflation. - The occasional large diamond found during production can be regarded as a bonus (a 100-carat flawless gem can be sold for about US$1.7 million). |
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Tags / Keywords
Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.
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Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc)
File format of the dataset.
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Dataset Size
Dataset size in megabytes.
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Metadata Identifier
Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
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Published Date
Published date of the dataset.
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2011-04-04 |
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Time Period Data Span (start date)
Start date of the data in the dataset.
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Time Period Data Span (end date)
End date of time data in the dataset.
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GeoSpatial Area Data Span
A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.
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Access category
Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
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License
License used to access the dataset.
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Open Government Licence - Yukon |
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Limits on use
Limits on use of data.
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Location
Location of the dataset.
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https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/68ccf46c-741a-4d2e-a617-9529369a2452 |
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Data Service
Data service for accessing a dataset.
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Owner
Owner of the dataset.
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Government of Yukon | Gouvernement du Yukon |
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Contact Point
Who to contact regarding access?
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Yukon Geological Survey |
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Contact Point Email
The email to contact regarding access?
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Publisher
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Publisher Email
Email of the publisher.
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[email protected] |
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Author
Author of the dataset.
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Author Email
Email of the author.
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Accessed At
Date the data and metadata was accessed.
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Identifier
Unique identifier for the dataset.
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Language
Language(s) of the dataset
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Link to dataset description
A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
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Persistent Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
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Globally Unique Identifier
Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
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Contains data about individuals
Does the data hold data about individuals?
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Contains data about identifiable individuals
Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
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Contains Indigenous Data
Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
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Portal Type
Platform type of the source portal.
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Version
Version of the datatset
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None |
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Source
Source of the dataset.
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None |
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Version notes
Version notes about the dataset.
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Is version of another dataset
Link to dataset that it is a version of.
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Other versions
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Provenance Text
Provenance Text of the data.
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Provenance URL
Provenance URL of the data.
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Temporal resolution
Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
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GeoSpatial resolution in meters
Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
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GeoSpatial resolution (in regions)
Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.
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Indigenous Community Permission
Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
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Community Permission
Community permission (who gave permission).
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The Indigenous communities the dataset is about
Indigenous communities from which data is derived.
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Number of data rows
If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
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Number of data columns
If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
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Number of data cells
If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
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Number of data relations
If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
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Number of entities
If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
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Number of data properties
If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
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Data quality
Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
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Metric for data quality
A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.
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