Drilling is under way at the Hartbeestlaagte 146 (H-146) and Zwartrand 145 (Z-145) diamond concessions in the Northwest Tansvaal province of South Africa.
The concessions, which comprise 83 sq. km, are held by South African-based Mountain Ash, the project operator. Ashton Mining of Australia owns 51% of Mountain Ash, with the remainder held by Mountain Lake Resources (MOA-V).
The 5,000-metre program will attempt to delineate the extent and depth of diamond-bearing gravels. Geophysical results indicate considerable thickness with some profile depths exceeding 60 metres.
Previous sporadic mining on the two properties recovered in excess of 15,000 carats of what are described as “exceptional quality gem diamonds.” According to Mountain Lake, the gravels on H-146 and Z-145 represent the southeastern extension of the diamondiferous gravels discovered several years ago by the company on its Nooitgedacht 131 (N-131) concession, now held by Mountain Ash.
Preliminary exploration by Mountain Lake on N-131 recovered 60 diamonds weighing 100 carats from a random sample totalling 5,897 tonnes. The three largest diamonds recovered in this sample weighed 12.7, 8.2 and 7.6 carats.
Current resources for N-131 are in excess of 18 million tons grading 1.5 carats per hundred tons.
Mountain Ash expects to complete the drill program in early May. If results are favorable, the company will begin calculating the volume/tonnage of gravels. Following this, if warranted, a 50,000-ton bulk sample will be taken from the deepest zone encountered.
The junior hopes that sufficient diamondiferous gravel reserves can be established on the H-146 and Z-145 concessions to result in a combined reserve (including the N-131 concession) of 60-90 million tonnes.
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