This was a fun week for jewelry auctions and the highlight for me was a series of diamonds offered for sale during Christie’s Magnificent Jewels New York Auction. Lots 62-68 were all cut from the same 552.74 carat rough; the largest gem quality diamond ever found in North America. The stone was unearthed in 2018 at the Diavik mine in Canada. A mine that was discovered by a woman.
Dancing Sun and satellite diamonds diamonds offered as Lots 62-68 in Christies Magnificent Jewels Sale June 8, 2021. Photo courtesy of Christies.
Eira Thomas was a recent college graduate in 1991 when the first diamond mine was discovered in Canada in the Northwest Territories. (Admittedly, although I have always loved diamonds, I was totally unaware of this big news and only later learned about diamond mines in Canada while watching reruns of Ice Road Truckers.) Eira put her newly minted geology degree to immediate use joining her father Grenn Thomas and his company Aber Resources as a field geologist. (Photo courtesy of Diavik Mining Company)
The team worked various plots in the coming years and then, in the spring of 1994, with funding running low and the ice on Lac de Gras starting to melt, Eira directed the drillers to one last target, hoping the science and her instincts were correct. That target led to the discovery of a 2-carat rough diamond, and was later developed into the Diavik diamond mine. During a recorded interview for the Nothern Mining Podcast at the Diamonds in Canada Symposium in 2018, Eira recalled that up to that time, “No one (on her team) had seen a diamond in the rough so luckily we had a small diamond tester”. She also stated that although they were excited to find such a large diamond in the sample, it was another two weeks before they received the lab analysis confirming that there were a lot of smaller diamonds present in the ore they’d recovered. In the end, it turned out they had found the highest-grade kimberlite in the world.
Eira has gone on to head various diamond and gold mining companies over her 30-year career. She currently serves as CEO of Lucara Diamond Corporation, a company she co-founded which wholly owns and operates the Karowe mine in Botswana. In recent years, through the use of innovative technology, Karowe has produced 4 of the top 10 largest rough diamonds in history. There is a really great article about Eira Thomas and the Karowe mine that was published in the New Yorker in 2020. You can read it here.
I first read about Eira in Mather Hart’s book Diamond in the early 2000’s. I was so pumped to learn about the woman who discovered a diamond mine! Although I felt I was too old, and ill-suited to become a field geologist, Eira herself has commented in recent years that new avenues for women entering the field are opening up. Speaking with Montecristo Magazine in 2016, she noted that mining and exploration careers are not easy for women to pursue when they have small children or are part of a working parent household. The travel requirements are typically prohibitive. She believes though, that the increasing need for mining companies to focus on community and social responsibility will open up more career opportunities for women. She feels that the relationship-building, listening and unique problem-solving skills that women bring to the table could be helpful when working with indigenous partners on developing mining projects.
Personally, I find it very encouraging to see fields that may have had high entry barriers for working mothers widening the talent pool they can dip into. Eira grew up trailing behind her father on exploration trips, seeing first hand from a young age what it was like to be a field geologist, however not everyone gets that opportunity. As a parent, I am excited to see what my children will decide to do with their lives and learning about different careers, jewelry or otherwise, helps me to broaden their horizons. Plus, given Eira’s comments above, maybe it’s not too late for me to make another change. I like people, I’m a good listener………
All of that said, when the Dancing Sun and six satellite diamonds came up for auction I really wished my piggy bank wasn’t empty because it would be really cool to own a diamond that was part of such a historic find at the Diavik mine. But this is exactly why I love following auctions, it’s never just about the jewelry or the stones, but the history that goes alongside. With this auction, I’m inspired to find some backyard geology adventures to see if I can spark any interest in field exploration in my own children. Hey, maybe if we end up with a diamond mining geologist in the family, I can get my rocks at a discount!
Photo above shows the original 552.74 carat rough. Photo from The Jeweler Blog post linked here
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