Arctic Canadian Diamond Company, which owns the Ekati diamond mine about 300 kilometres northwest of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories, told the courts it can no longer make its payroll after prices for its diamonds dropped from US$92 per carat at the end of 2024 to $24 per carat at the end of last year. (The Logic)

Talking point: The country’s first diamond mine, Ekati once produced about four per cent of the world’s total supply. But tariffs delivered a deadly blow, as it was already contending with competition from lab-grown alternatives and declining demand in the massive Chinese market, the firm’s head of finance said in its filings for protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. The federal government gave Ekati a $115-million tariff-relief loan in December. Nearly 20 per cent of the Northwest Territories’ gross domestic product comes from diamonds, leaving it vulnerable to the market rout, which has also prompted Anglo American to trim its N.W.T. diamond business and sell the division. Rio Tinto’s Diavik mine in N.W.T. is also nearing the end of its life.