King property yields microdiamonds

Vancouver — Randy Turner-led Diamondex (DSP-V) has tabled positive microdiamond results from its king property adjacent to De Beers’ Snap Lake diamond deposit.

The King property consists of 44 mineral claims that cover 457 sq. km contiguous to the Camsell property 220 km northeast of Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories.Last summer the junior drilled 9,472 metres to test the down-dip potential of the Snap Lake deposit onto the King property. The holes, drilled on 800-metre centers, confirmed the continuation of the dyke system. Caustic fusion analysis was not performed on two of the six holes – one was abandoned due to drilling difficulties and the other contained 17 “feathered” intersections of kimberlite ranging from 2-to-33 cm over a 60-metre interval.From 56.52 kg of kimberlite a total of 346 diamonds were recovered, 133 of them were greater than a 0.2 mm square mesh sieve and two diamonds exceeded 1.18 mm square mesh sieve size. Assuming uniform distribution, the data suggests that a 1,000 kg sample would yield an estimated 1,115 diamonds exceeding 0.3 mm with 35 of them larger than 1.18 mm. Diamondex states that the two largest diamonds recovered measured 2.08 mm-by-1.45 mm-by-0.49 mm and 2.05 mm-by-1.37 mm-by-0.72 mm. Both came from hole KG-002.

Results indicate that the stone size distribution is generally similar to that previously reported for the Snap Lake diamond deposit. In addition, the stone density (per hundred tonnes) appears to increase on the King property when compared with the equivalent measure from Snap Lake. Diamondex stresses that these inferences are preliminary observations that are based on a relatively small kimberlite sample.

In addition to the drill program, Diamondex in conjunction with De Beers and the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of British Columbia, have performed a 9.5 line-km two-dimensional seismic survey over both the Snap Lake and the southern portion of the King property. The survey was designed to determine whether the dyke system can be identified at depth on the King property. If this is possible then Diamondex could establish continuity of the kimberlite between largely spaced drill holes and investigate other possible manifestations of the kimberlite.

The junior also has completed a 3,055 line-km airborne magnetic-electromagnetic survey on a 150-metre line spacing over the King property. The junior reports that 75 airborne anomalies have been selected for further evaluation and it has collected 219 till samples that are currently being processed.