Vancouver — Blackstone Ventures (BLV-V) and Northern Empire Minerals (NEM-V) have joined the long list of companies searching for diamonds in the Otish Mountains region of north-central Quebec.
Blackstone staked some 38,600 acres of ground, 85 km southwest of Ashton Mining of Canada’s (ACA-T) recent diamond discovery. Dubbed Premier, the property was acquired using data provided by BHP Diamonds, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BHP Billiton (BHP-N). In return for supplying the information, BHP can gets a back-in right calling for the major to earn a 51% interest by spending $4 million over 4-years, plus an additional 9% by spending another $6 million. Blackstone must spend $1 million on the property and drill five diamond drill holes before the back-in opportunity is launched.
Some 35-km east of Ashton’s find, Northern Empire Minerals has staked 19,030 acres of ground. Dubbed La Croix, the property lies along strike of the magnetic geophysical anomaly that trends through Ashton’s project. The junior plans on launching a till sampling and geophysical survey later this year.
In December, Ashton Mining sparked a staking rush by announcing the microdiamond counts from two kimberlitic bodies discovered during a first pass of drilling last fall. A 205.8-kg core sample from Renard 1 yielded 54 micros and 5 macros. (A macro measures greater than 0.5 mm in at least one dimension.) The second kimberlitic body, dubbed Renard 2, was discovered 1 km south of Renard 1. It yielded 116 micros and 29 macros from 163.1 kg of sample, including five stones registering greater than 0.5 mm in two dimensions. The three largest diamonds measured 1.63 by 1.58 by 0.53 mm, 1.44 by 1.05 by 0.6 mm, and 1.25 by 1.05 by 0.6 mm.
Ashton holds more than 1,760 sq. km of mineral permits in the Otish Mountains area in a 50-50 joint venture with Quebec government-owned Soquem. The pair has been searching for diamonds in the northern Quebec portion of the Superior Craton since 1996Majescor Resources (MAJ-V) is active in the Otish Mountains area. The junior began ground investigations of regional airborne magnetic anomalies in 1998. Follow-up work in 1999 generated a broad, loosely defined 25-by-45-km corridor of anomalous kimberlite indicator minerals in glacio-fluvial sediments. This corridor was better defined in 2000 by a further 600 till samples.
BHP Diamonds struck a deal with Majescor this past summer to earn up to a 56% interest in the Portage property block by funding all costs through to production. BHP completed an 8,500-line-km airborne geophysical survey, which was followed by ground investigations of selected targets, including further till sampling. Ground geophysics will be carried out in order to outline targets in preparation for drilling.
In 2001, Majescor carried out widespread reconnaissance sampling and identified several anomalous indicator mineral zones in the Mistassini area. Majescor staked 1,216 sq. km in this area, with a further 494 sq. km still pending approval by the Quebec Ministry of Natural Resources. The land package stretches from the northern tip of Lake Mistassini to the western limit of the Otish Mountains.
Based on the till sampling results, Canabrava Diamond (CNB-V) entered into an option agreement with Majescor on the Mistassini package, and can earn a half-interest by spending $1.3 million on exploration and issuing 100,000 shares over three years.
Majescor also farmed out ground to Iriana Resources (IR-T), which can earn a half-interest in four separate properties covering 250 sq. km by spending $750,000 over three years. The property package is near the main Majescor-BHP block.
Other juniors that have recently picked up ground in the Otish Mountains area include: Dios Exploration, a soon-to-be-listed diamond vehicle of Sirios Resources (SOL-V), Melkior Resources (MKR-V), Plexmar Resources (PLE-V), Canalaska Ventures (CVV-V), Boulder Mining (YBR-V) and New Blue Ribbon Resources (NBL-V).
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