After a long hiatus, the NWT’s polar bear-branded diamonds are once again hitting stores in Yellowknife and beyond.
Diamonds de Canada welcomed special guests and members of the public to a launch event at the NWT Diamond and Jewellery Centre on Thursday, July 14, to unveil a special collection limited to 16,000 polar bear diamonds – a number that reflects the current polar bear population in Canada.
The exclusive gems mined from the Northern tundra of Canada’s Arctic, will soon be available at 35 retailers across the continent.
Thursday’s guests included Yellowknife Mayor Rebecca Alty and Great Slave MLA Katrina Nokleby. Ian Down/NNSL photo
The NWT-based manufacturer acquired the rights to the long-dormant brand late last year. Although it hasn’t been used in more than a decade, Diamonds de Canada owner Benjamin King says the brand only “went into hibernation, and we figured it was time to bring it back in a new and exciting way that really told the story of the Northwest Territories.”
Yellowknifers can get their own polar bear diamonds at the NWT Diamond and Jewellery Centre, the first retailer in the world to carry the revived brand.
‘Hibernation’ you say! Except for surfing car bumpers, the Territories’ brand has been recovering from a series of abusive relationships that began when the government wrested it from the hands of its first handler, then passed it on to ‘Diamond Row’ companies that went broke and left taxpayers with a $6 million hole in their purse. The trademark was then passed to Deepak Kumar who used it to leverage $2 million from a gullible investment company and promptly absconded. Good luck to the latest guardian of the bear!