Meet Eira Thomas, the woman who wears diamonds from a mine that she discovered. She is now president and CEO of Kaminak Gold.

VANCOUVER — Eira Thomas is the only woman in the world who wears diamonds from a mine that she discovered. But these days, she has gold on her mind. Yukon gold.

The mining veteran is chief executive officer of Kaminak Gold, which just released a preliminary assessment showing positive economics for its Coffee project 130 kilometres south of Dawson City.

The gold at Coffee is near-surface and — importantly — not too expensive to extract. The report assumes a gold price of $1,250 US an ounce and projects all-in production costs of less than $700 per ounce, compared to a current spot price of about $1,320.

“There is this view, or misnomer, that if you’re anywhere but southern Ontario in Canada, your costs are going to be very high, particularly in the North,” Thomas said during a recent interview at the Kaminak office in downtown Vancouver. “We’ve been able to demonstrate with our study that is not necessarily the case.”

Coffee would produce a total of 450,000 ounces of gold in the first two years, with average annual production of 167,000 ounces over an 11-year mine life.

The company is also taking care of business on the key First Nations front, thrust into the spotlight recently by the Supreme Court of Canada decision granting aboriginal title to the Tsilhqot’in in B.C.’s central Interior.

Kaminak recently signed an exploration and cooperation agreement with the White River First Nation, and has been “very proactive” on other First Nations fronts, according to Thomas.

“Our strategy has been to engage early, establish a solid relationship that’s based on good communication and trust, and look for ways in which everyone can benefit from the development of this project,” she said.

Thomas’s strategies in the executive suite are informed by years of experience in the field, from an early age.

“I spent a lot of my youth, and mostly every summer, in northern Canada out in the bush with dad, so that was a great experience,” said Thomas, a University of Toronto geology graduate.

“Dad” is industry legend D. Grenville (Gren) Thomas. And Eira’s path from those Arctic adventures with her treasure-seeking father to the boardroom led through a remote lake called Lac de Gras in the Northwest Territories and a discovery that permanently shifted the diamond landscape.

Gren Thomas was a mining engineer who had moved into exploration after emigrating from Wales, and his Aber Diamond was one of the early players in the great northern staking rush sparked by Chuck Fipke’s 1991 discovery of diamonds north of Yellowknife. By the spring of 1994, heading into Aber’s third year of exploration, Eira was leading the field exploration team.

“We’d found lots of kimberlites, but none that really looked very compelling. ... We had a few diamonds, but grades were low.”

Time was running out and so was the window for drilling through Lac de Gras, the frozen lake that lay over some of Aber’s best targets.

“Once you’re sitting on a floating barge of ice, you don’t have long,” she said. “It was a little harrowing.”

Thomas wanted to drill one more hole through the ice before the breakup — to the consternation of the drill crew. With reservations, they agreed. “They said, ‘Alright, well let’s hunker down and get one more hole in.’”

The drill core had an almost-two-carat diamond embedded in it, and that kimberlite is now one of the richest pipes at the Diavik diamond mine, which opened in 2003. The mine — operated by Rio Tinto and Aber successor Dominion Diamond — produces about eight million carats annually, helping make Canada the world’s No. 3 diamond-producing country.

“We knew we had to be on to something serious, because you just don’t see visual diamonds in the core,” Thomas said. “It just doesn’t happen.”

Diavik also yielded the two-carat diamond earrings that Thomas wore on the day of our interview.

Dubbed the “Queen of Diamonds” for her role in establishing Canada on the world diamond stage, she is quick to spread the credit around.

“I get a ton of credit for Diavik, but it was very much a team effort.”

The discovery hole that rocked the diamond world is two decades in the past, but diamonds remain a “passionate pursuit” for Thomas.

A company she co-founded and led for several years, Stornoway Diamonds, is building the Renard diamond mine, Quebec’s first. Geologist Robin Hopkins, a key member of the Aber exploration team, is Stornoway’s vice-president of exploration.

Thomas is also a director of Lucara Diamond, an African producer of large and coloured diamonds that is part of mining tycoon Lukas Lundin’s stable of companies, and an adviser to North Arrow Minerals, a diamond exploration company run by her father. (Disclosure: I own shares in North Arrow Minerals.)

In addition to “skin in the game” — Thomas owns 7.7 million Lucara shares, a two-per-cent stake worth about $21 million at current prices — she has letters in the corporate name.

The “ra” in Lucara stands for Eira (the “Lu” is for Lukas and the “Ca” for Catherine McLeod-Seltzer, Stornoway co-founder and former Lucara director), she confirmed.

“We just argued, we had so many different names, and finally Lukas said, ‘Well, let’s just call it Lucara,’” she said with a laugh.

Lucara shares have more than tripled in the past year, in stark contrast with the downward slide that has afflicted most junior mining company stocks.

But Thomas is not selling her shares — “I’m very bullish on the Lucara story, I think it’s got a long way to go. William (Lamb) is a great CEO and I think he’s going to build a strong foundation for the future.”

Diamond exploration can be frustrating for investors because diamonds are so difficult to find, and because of the time it takes to develop a mine — but the rewards can be dramatic, she added.

“If you believe in strong economies and growing populations, diamonds is a good place to be,” said Thomas. “That, and the fact that they’re rare, and increasingly becoming in short supply around the world.”

Mentoring young women interested in a career in mining or business is also a passion for Thomas, who was honoured by the Minerva Foundation for B.C. Women in 2010 for her leadership in the mining industry. She said she would encourage all women to consider the diverse opportunities in exploration and mining — and that includes her two young daughters.

“I want them to grow into strong, confident women, feeling as though any career option is open to them if they are determined and committed,” she said.

With an aging workforce, mining is facing the same demographic challenge as other industries, creating opportunity for young talent, Thomas pointed out.

“The world is your oyster if you’re interested in pursuing a career in mining.”

jkwantes@vancouversun.com

Twitter.com/jameskwantes