33,000 carats after the end: Diavik sweeps its own floor

ILeftovers, by the ton

The company's second-quarter operations review, reported by Rapaport on Monday, shows 33,000 carats recovered at Diavik between April and June — not from mining, which ended when the Northwest Territories operation reached the close of its life in March, but from processing the ore that remained on surface.

Output fell 97% from both the prior quarter and the year before, the arithmetic of a mine that no longer exists.

For the half, Diavik produced 1.1 million carats, down 51% from the first six months of 2025. Rio Tinto says it will continue to process and sell its final production through the end of 2026, which gives the market roughly five more months of Canadian goods carrying the Diavik name before the tap closes entirely.

IIAn arc closes

The exit completes an arc two decades long. Argyle in Australia — once the world's largest producer by volume and the source of nearly all its pink diamonds — closed in 2020. The stake in Fort à la Corne in Saskatchewan was sold in 2023.

Diavik was the last diamond asset on the books of a company that has decided its future is copper, iron ore and lithium. One wrinkle survives the funeral: Rio Tinto is keeping diamond exploration alive in Angola, the same ground where De Beers and Endiama have been mapping new kimberlites.

IIIThree names subtract at once

The supply math thickens a story this page has been tracking all month. Burgundy's Ekati went dark in June; Diavik is now processing its own remnants; De Beers has paused Venetia's underground for two years.

Three of the industry's storied names are subtracting carats at once, into a rough market that De Beers just repriced downward — a reminder that supply discipline is arriving the hard way, by exhaustion rather than by choice.