DIAMONDS — Pioneers of Canadian diamond exploration

Charles Fipke and Christopher Jennings have become household names, at least within the mining community. This is hardly surprising, as they played prominent roles in advancing kimberlite finds in the Northwest Territories that promise to sustain the northern economy for years to come.

But long before Fipke began his successful hunt for the country’s first diamond mine, others were searching for the precious stones. As early as 1863, many were trying to find the source of diamonds found in glacial drift in the Great Lakes region. Although several of these early explorers found pipes, and even diamonds, none was able to outline an economic deposit.

These early efforts were highly secretive, and consequently the record is patchy at best. But The Northern Miner was able to piece together a partial list of pioneers with the help of insiders with keen memories, including Patricia Sheehan of Konsult International, who has been compiling reference literature on diamond exploration for the past 38 years and Ed Freeman, who authored several papers on diamonds for the Ontario Geological Survey in the 1970s and 1980s. The list includes:

* Joe Brummer — Working as a diamond exploration consultant in the 1970s, Brummer found kimberlites and some diamonds in the Kirkland Lake area of Ontario. He authored a number of papers on the subject of diamond exploration in Canada.

* Don MacFadyen — MacFadyen worked as a consultant alongside Brummer, and was one of the first Canadians to recognize the suitability of using existing aeromagnetic surveys to pinpoint kimberlite pipes.

* Bert Lee — As a geologist for the Geological Survey of Canada, Lee found diamond indicator minerals while analyzing material from the Munro esker in northern Ontario. This led to the discovery of kimberlite dykes at the Upper Canada mine in Gauthier Twp. in the 1970s.

* Jack Satterly — Satterly, a geologist for the Ontario Department of Mines, was the first to identify kimberlite in Canada. In 1948, he described kimberlite dykes in holes drilled for gold and base metals in Ontario’s Michaud Twp.

* Tom Skimming — Skimming is credited with the discovery of kimberlite indicator minerals (pyrope garnets) in the Moose River drainage basin of the James Bay Lowland.

* Mousseau Tremblay — Tremblay found chrome diopside and pyrope garnet while sampling the Abitibi and Little Abitibi Rivers in the early sixties. He concluded in his report to Hard Metals (Canada) that “the possibility of the existence of diamonds in Canada can be reasonably entertained, despite the fact that none have ever been found in the past.”

* George (Gus) Wahl — “Within 10 years there will be a diamond mine in Canada”, predicted Wahl in 1982. He worked for several companies looking for diamonds, including Diapros (the precursor to Monopros), Selco Mining and Diadem Resources. As an expert on “up-ice” sources of indicator minerals, he guided Selco’s exploration programs across Canada.

* Bill Wolfe — Wolfe played a part in identifying several kimberlites and other diatremes in the Canadian Arctic (Somerset Island), Colorado and British Columbia for Cominco. “We found a lot of microdiamonds but never a macro,” says Wolfe. “It got outrageously expensive.”