It came from the earth, a crystallized clump of carbon blasted from the rocky soil of northern Ontario by a multinational mining company.

Now that it’s in the hands of a leading Canadian diamond maker, the gem from the open pit mine near Attawapiskat is causing a stir. At 35 carats, it’s the biggest diamond ever pulled from Canadian soil that will also be cut and polished in the country.

“That’s what makes this unique,” said Tom Ormsby, director of external and corporate affairs for De Beers Canada , which operates the Victor Diamond Mine in northern Ontario, 90 km west of James Bay.

“It will be valued once it’s done being cut and polished,” said Ormsby, who declined to say how much Vancouver-based diamond cutter Crossworks Manufacturing paid to process the precious gem.

The Canadian company, which has a contract to buy as much as 10 per cent of the annual diamond production from the De Beers’ Victor mine, started working on the diamond this week, said Ormsby.

The stone will ultimately be carved down to 15 carats, and will be shaped according to the Crossworks “ Ideal Square ” design that features a special “hearts and arrows” pattern. By comparison, the famed “Hope” diamond at Washington D.C.’s Smithsonian Museum is 45.52 carats.

David Ritter, president of the Canadian Jewellers Association , said it’s hard to predict a diamond’s value until it has been cut down. But from what he’s heard, this gem could bear quite a price tag.

“In Canada, this is somewhat rare,” he said. “Could it be worth a million dollars? Yeah, it could.

“The Victor mine produces some of the highest quality diamonds in the world.”

De Beers broke ground on the 15-hectare open-pit mine in February 2006, and diamond removal began two and half years later. Two gems from the Victor mine have been placed in the ceremonial mace at Queen’s Park, while a third is on display at the legislature, said Ormsby.

The operation consists of 16 kimberlite pipes, which are cone-shaped columns of dried lava containing diamonds that were carried up from deep underground more than 150 million years ago, explained David Atkinson, the Ontario government’s resident geologist in Timmins.

“Long before humans walked the face of the Earth, these things erupted,” said Atkinson, who described the conditions near the Victor mine to be “ideal” for finding diamonds. That’s because of the Canadian Shield, which is a “hard, old, cold crust” which creates the perfect conditions to preserve diamonds in their gem form when they rose in kimberlite columns, Atkinson said.

According to De Beers, the mine produces 600,000 carats of diamond annually, and has a remaining lifespan of about seven years.

Aside from pumping out sparkly gems, the mine has been a source of controversy in the James Bay area, where there are concerns that economic benefits from the diamond industry aren’t spilling over enough into neighbouring aboriginal communities.

In February, amid the nation-wide agitation of the Idle No More movement, protesters blockaded an ice-road to the mine for two weeks.

De Beers’ Ormsby declined to comment on the relationship with James Bay aboriginal communities, other than to say the mine did $59 million worth of business with aboriginal contractors last year, and that De Beers employs roughly 100 people from Attawapiskat.

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HOW AN OPEN PIT DIAMOND MINE WORKS

The Victor Mine west of Attawapiskat is a “classic” open pit diamond mine. What does that mean?

Ursula Thorley, assistant professor at the Queen’s University mining department, explains:

Once a company has found kimberlite diamond deposits near the surface of the earth’s crust, boring will begin to create a sizeable pit. “The mine is actually worked in benches,” she said, comparing the open pit to a large set of steps.

The process of digging up diamonds begins by drilling holes and filling them with explosives. Blasts then loosen the earth, which is hauled away by front end loaders and 100-ton trucks, said Thorley.

The dirt is then crushed and washed, and put in a centrifuge that separates bits of rock that contain diamonds from those that don’t.

“We can separate them using gravity, because diamonds are very dense,” said Thorley.

Finally, the remaining material is placed on a conveyor belt, and diamonds are identified and removed with precise puffs of air in an entirely mechanized process, she said.

Voila! Diamonds.

Correction - July 30, 2013: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said the diamond would be taken on an internationl tour.

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