Hugo Dummett

Hugo T. Dummett (1940–2002) was a South African mineral-exploration geologist who is best known for his role in the discovery of the Ekati Diamond Mine in the Barren Lands of Canada's Northwest Territories. Dummett has been described as "the brains, the ideas and the energy" behind the discovery of Ekati, which led to the creation of a new Canadian diamond-mining industry. Between 1979 and 1982, the partners found at least 20 kimberlite pipes, but none had commercial diamond potential. The Falconbridge-Superior joint venture then funded a research program by South African geochemist John Gurney, to study possible indicator minerals for diamondiferous pipes. By 1982, Gurney had established that the kimberlite pyrope garnet "G10" was critical to diamond discovery. Pipes without the G10 garnet were likely to be barren. Using this new technology, the venture discovered a promising pipe in eastern Botswana, but lost the land to De Beers, who later discovered a commercial diamond deposit there. By 2009, annual sales from EKATI amounted to about 5% by value of world diamond production.

In 2001, Dummett joined Ivanhoe Mines as Vice President. He contributed to the discovery of a large porphyry copper-gold deposit that was renamed in his honor, at the advanced Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia. In 2002 Dummett was President of the Society of Economic Geologists. The Oyu Tolgoi mining project is the largest financial undertaking in Mongolia's history, and is projected upon completion to account for more than 30% of the country's economy. The Hugo Dummett Diamond Award was established in his honor in 2004 by the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia. Dummett was inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame in 2010. Dummett has also received the William Lawrence Saunders Gold Medal (1997) and the Daniel C. Jackling Award (2000), among other awards and honors.