Barren lands : an epic search for diamonds in the North American Arctic

First published in 2001, Barren Lands is the classic true story of the men who sought—and found—a great diamond mine on the last frontier of the far north. From a bloody 18th-century trek across the Canadian tundra to the daunting natural forces facing protagonists Chuck Fipke and Stewart Blusson as they struggle against the mighty DeBeers cartel, this is the definitive account of one of the world’s great mineral discoveries. Combining geology, science history, raw nature, and high intrigue, it is also a tale of supreme adventure, taking the reader into a magical—and now fast-vanishing—wild landscape. Now in a newly revised and updated edition. "In the late 1970s, two men set out on what would prove to be a twenty-year quest to find a North American gem mine, along a fabled path that had defied sixteenth-century explorers, Wild West fortune seekers, and modern geologists. They are an unlikely pair: Chuck Fipke, a ragged, fanatical prospector with a singular talent for finding sand-size mineral grains, and Stew Blusson, an ultra-tough geologist and helicopter pilot. Inventive, eccentric, and ruthless, they follow a trail of clues left by predecessors - and a few actual gems - all the way from backwoods Arkansas up the glaciated high Rockies into the vast and haunted barren lands of northern Canada. With a South African geochemist's secret weapon, Fipke and Blusson outwit rivals, including the immense De Beers cartel, and make one of the world's greatest diamond discoveries - setting off a stampede unseen since the Klondike gold rush.". "A story of obsession and scientific intrigue, Barren Lands in also an elegy to one of the earth's last great wild places, a starkly beautiful and mysterious land alive with great herds of caribou, primeval rock formations, echoes of a violent past - and endless present danger. Now that the barrens are "open for business," what is in store for the far north?"--BOOK JACKET. First published in 2001, Barren Lands is the classic true story of the men who sought{u2014}and found{u2014}a great diamond mine on the last frontier of the far north. From a bloody 18th-century trek across the Canadian tundra to the daunting natural forces facing protagonists Chuck Fipke and Stewart Blusson as they struggle against the mighty DeBeers cartel, this is the definitive account of one of the world{u2019}s great mineral discoveries. Combining geology, science history, raw nature, and high intrigue, it is also a tale of supreme adventure, taking the reader into a magical{u2014}and now fast-vanishing{u2014}wild landscape. Now in a newly revised and updated edition