YELLOWKNIFE (November 10, 2016) —  Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment Wally Schumann issued the following statement today:

“The Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) has terminated its Monitoring, Certification and Trademark Licensing Agreements with Deepak International Ltd (DIL). DIL is no longer an Approved Northwest Territories Diamond Manufacturer and no longer licensed to use Polar Bear Diamond ® or other GNWT trademarks.

“The GNWT remains confident about the future of the NWT secondary diamond industry.  The NWT was recently reconfirmed as the world’s third largest producer of diamonds by value and there continues to be significant manufacturer interest in establishing operations in the NWT.   All NWT diamond producers remain committed to providing up to 10% of their NWT mine production to approved manufacturing operations based in the NWT.”