Diamond explorers Gren and Eira do it again in Canada's frozen north

Eira Thomas CEO of Stornoway Diamonds

He is the rugby-loving Welshman who became a billionaire diamond hunter and she is the daughter who followed in her father’s footsteps successfully exploring for diamonds in Canada’s frozen north.

Almost 20 years ago Swansea-born Gren Thomas, 72, and his 46-year-old daughter Eira (aptly, Welsh for snow) discovered the huge Diavik diamond field in the tundra of Canada’s North West Territories.

And now the pair have done it again - their new company North Arrow Minerals exciting investors by discovering a new diamond deposit near Saskatchewan.

It was in 1994 that Gren Thomas with his daughter Eira, dubbed “the Queen of Diamonds”, along with her sled dog Thor, defying killer bears and bone-chilling -40C winds in remote territory made famous by TV’s Ice Road Truckers, discovered the lucrative Diavik diamond mine.

It helped helped propel Canada above former gem capital South Africa as a major diamond producer.

And it made the Thomases rich and famous.

Gren Thomas built a replica near his comfortable West Vancouver home of the Red Lion pub in Morriston, Swansea, that he remembered from his Welsh childhood.

Meanwhile red haired Eira became a poster girl for the Canadian diamond industry, leaving the diamond fields for the board rooms of diamond and gold corporations.

But both have teamed up again for North Arrow Minerals’ Pikoo diamond mine project located approximately 140km east of La Ronge, Saskatchewan and 100km west of Flin Flon, Manitoba.

Gren Thomas is chairman of North Arrow while his daughter is the company’s highly experienced chief advisor.

Earlier this week shares in North Arrow Minerals rocketed more than 50% after the explorer announced the results of drilling at its Pikoo diamond field.

What got investors excited was a 209.7kg sample from company’s Pikoo sampling programme which uncovered 745 diamonds larger than the 0.106-millimetre sieve size, including 23 diamonds larger than the 0.85-mm sieve size (a major indictor of bigger and more diamonds in the area).

Company president Ken Armstrong said the results where so exceptional that it “establishes Pikoo as a new diamond district in Canada”.

What was also good news for North Arrow Minerals was the finds were close to an “all season” road in the region making the gems easier to transport.

The North Arrow claims were staked in 2011 and the sampling work was carried out this summer.

A statement from the company said: “The high microdiamond counts suggest potential for a coarse diamond size distribution and the project is within 10km of Saskatchewan Highway 911.”

Gren (Grenville) Thomas is the founder and past Chairman of Aber Resources (now Harry Winston Diamond Corporation), the company he ran while discovering the Diavik Diamond Mine (now Dominion Diamond Corporation) with his daughter.

In 2009 he was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame because of his success in diamond exploration.

He was born in Clase, Swansea in 1941 when air-raid sirens were whining and searchlights were desperately seeking German bombers over the war torn skies of Swansea, its vast docks and metal-working history making it a major Luftwaffe target.

He emigrated to Canada after graduating from University College, Cardiff, in 1964 as a mining engineer. He still takes a keen interest in Welsh rugby and has been a sponsor of the Canadian national side.

In his Hall of Fame acceptance speech, Thomas said he was pleased his work would help Canada’s “First Nations people” (Inuit and Metis) share in the riches of the Tundra.

He said: “Diamond discoveries will ensure that Yellowknife will continue to be one of the great mining towns of the north, even after the closing of its gold mines.”

His daughter Eira gained extensive diamond exploration and development experience in Canada and Africa after discovering Diavik and has served as an officer and/or director of Aber Resources and the Lucara Diamond Corporation and is currently Chief Executive of the Kaminak Gold Corporation and a director of Suncor.

She is married to an artist who called in for a drink at her father’s replica Red Lion.

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