The largest growth of diamond underground mining in the world was experienced in Canada. To date, underground mining was introduced on five kimberlite pipes and one kimberlite sill. Ekati Diamond Mine was the first diamond mine to be developed near Lac de Gras in the Northwest Territories of Canada and the mining method commenced as open pit at Panda pipe. Almost concurrently, planning was underway for underground mining at Panda and Koala pipes. At Ekati, three principal underground mining methods were utilized including Sub-Level Retreat (SLR), Sub-Level Caving (SLC) and Incline Caving (IC) mining. This video focuses on a paper documenting experiences with Incline Caving at Koala Mine and presents some of the challenges related to mining in the Arctic.
