Robert Gannicott, the man who built Canada’s largest diamond mining company,
Dominion Diamond (TSX: DDC; NYSE: DDC) and a pioneer of Canada’s diamond scene for 25 years, has died.
Gannicott passed away on Aug. 3, at age 69, after a two-year battle with leukemia.
One of the first and most successful entrants into the Lac de Gras diamond rush in the Northwest Territories in the early 1990s, Gannicott is being remembered as a visionary and innovator, as well as for his vast contributions to Canada’s North.
With Grenville Thomas, he played an integral role at Aber Diamond in finding the Diavik mine. Gannicott then led the company through a series of transactions to become Dominion Diamond – the world’s third largest diamond miner after
De Beers and
Alrosa.
A transplant from England, Gannicott travelled to Canada when he was 19. Heading up to Yellowknife, he soon found work at the Giant mine as a raise miner’s assistant.
Read the entire story at The Northern Miner.
Comments