The three diamond mines discovered in Canada's Northwest Territories "are just the beginning," journalist Kevin Krajick told a recent GIA Alumni Association meeting in Manhattan.
"There is now prospecting all over Canada," said Krajick, author of Barren Lands: An Epic Search for Diamonds in the North American Arctic, a new book on Canada's diamond rush. "There will be mining there for I don't know how long—centuries, maybe."
Krajick, a veteran science writer, began the book to learn more about the mindset of diamond explorers. "Diamond mining is a pretty hopeless profession," he said, noting that "99% of the time, you never find anything. The question is: What would drive someone to do this, other than the obvious desire to get rich?"
According to Krajick, explorers journey to the "literal ends of the Earth" to find diamonds. The Northwest Territories are called "barren lands" be