187.7ct Foxfire Diamond Discovered in Sub-arctic Ice
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| The Foxfire diamond is the largest known uncut, gem-quality diamond mined in North America. (Smithsonian Museum of Natural History/Amadena Investments, LLC ) |
The 187.7 carat gem-quality rough diamond, known as The Diavik Foxfire, was discovered at the Diavik Diamond Mine in the remote Northwest Territories of Canada, 220km south of the Arctic Circle.
The Diavik Foxfire is the largest gem quality rough diamond ever recorded in Canada. In fact, it is unlikely there will be a rough diamond of this size coming out of North America again.
The Diavik Foxfire takes its reference from a term used in Canadian folklore, which describes the luminescent Northern Lights as the brush of foxtails in the sky.
Consider this: the Diavik Foxfire is more than two billion years old.
It was forged hundreds of kilometres below the surface of the earth from a single element – carbon, the same element that gave us life – at pressures and temperatures we can barely imagine.
It has travelled through the fiery core of the earth to come to rest beneath a frozen lake, some 200 kilometres south of the Arctic Circle, in a region known as the Barren Lands, where the only highways were centuries-old paths woven into the icy tundra by migrating caribou.
Here, with all its magical history preserved within, it has been discovered and uncovered in a feat of human engineering that is in itself quite remarkable, all the while preserving the integrity of Diavik’s pristine environment. This was accomplished while working closely and respectfully with local communities – especially local Indigenous communities – to ensure they derive enduring benefits from the relatively short economic life of the mine.
The above post is reprinted from Rio Tinto