Morning fire at Ekati diamond mine contained, no one injured

A fire that broke out at the Ekati diamond mine this morning has been contained.

The incident happened at about 7 a.m. during a planned outage in the mine's process plant, according to a news release from Dominion Diamond Corporation.

The diamond mine is located about 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife.

The company says after the fire broke out, the mine's incident management team responded to the situation. Its emergency response team was called to the scene and the fire was contained.

Everyone was evacuated from the plant and has been accounted for. The company says, at this time,no injuries have been reported.

"Our first priority is the safety and well-being of our workforce and of all the people involved in responding to this incident," the news release said.

Dominion Diamond says it will provide more information as it becomes available.

According to its website, the Ekati process plant can process 4.3 million tonnes of ore per year.