While industry insiders claim that global diamond production is about to take a nosedive, don’t tell the Canadians that. That country’s Tahera Diamond Corporation recently opened the very first diamond mine in the northwestern Canadian province of Nunavut. If all goes as expected, diamonds from the Jericho Mine, located about 250 miles north of the town of Yellowknife, will soon be appearing in diamond engagement rings all over the world. Jericho joins the Ekati and Diavit diamond mines in the neighboring Northwest Territories as Canada’s third diamond mine. Not only has that region recently been proven to contain the oldest known diamonds in the world, the two mines together produced USD $1.4 billion worth of diamonds last year alone.

Jericho’s isn’t going to be an easy task, but it’s sure to be a profitable one. It’s expected that the 180+ workers at the $96 million Jericho Diamond Mine will have to extract, crush, and sift through about a tonne of kimberlite, the volcanic rock that contains diamonds, in order to produce a carat worth of rough diamonds. But considering the fact that they’ll be processing some 2,000 tonnes of rock a day, that’s enough to yield a startling 2,000 carats daily of sparkling treasure — a fortune in anyone’s eyes. Preliminary mining activities have been ongoing since January 2006, and in June miners discovered a 59-carat rough stone that’s worth an estimated $320,000. Now that mining is underway on a commercial scale, it’s a good bet that others like that one, or even bigger, will soon be found. The new mine is expected to produce as many as 375,000 carats a year. Now that’s enough to make you go around singing “Oh, Canada!” even if you’re not a Canadian, eh?

Of course, not every one of those 2,000 carats a day will go toward making diamond wedding rings and other sparkling jewelry. If the Nunavut mine is like most diamond mines, some portion of the glittery stuff, possibly up to 80%, will be bort — diamonds unsuitable for gemstones, and destined for use in cutting, polishing, drilling, and grinding. Since diamond is the hardest substance known to humankind, nothing works better for these purposes. In any case, it’s expected that Jericho will produce at least $20 million worth of diamonds per year.

And where will these diamonds go from there, you may ask? They’ll go where all good diamonds hope to go when they grow up: to Tiffany’s. New York’s Tiffany and Co. provided a loan of $28 million ($35 million Canadian) to help with Jericho’s construction, and will buy and market all the gems that the Jericho facility can produce. Since they’re the only purveyor of Jericho diamonds, if you’d like to own a brilliant piece of Nunavut, you’re going to have to talk to the people at Tiffany’s. Tiffany and Co. is well known for its commitment to quality when it comes to diamonds and other precious stones, making it an excellent choice as a retailer for the Nunavut diamonds.

Expect to see more Canadian diamonds on the market in years to come. Now that Canada’s been revealed as a new source of diamonds, the Canadian government and the diamond industry plan to open three more mines. Before long, the Gahcho Kue, Snap Lake, and Victor diamond mines will be online, provide consumers worldwide with the diamond jewelry of their dreams.