You could say this is a story about good old fashioned stubornness. Or
that it's all about following a dream. Above all it is a story about a treasure
that is now the world's to share. It began began with an optimism that defied logic.
But prospector Chuck Fipke and his partner, Dr. Stu Blusson believed
they could. For a decade in the 1980s, the pair scoured the wild land for
samples that would show minerals often found in association with
diamonds. In 1985, Fipke found them, in a sample he'd taken near Lac
de Gras, some 300 km northeast of Yellowknife. Fipke was convinced
he'd found evidence of diamond-bearing kimberlites - ancient "pipes" of
volcanic rock that bear the hard crystals we call diamonds.