New Blue Ice showing delivers goods

A kimberlite showing discovered last summer by Diamonds North Resources (DDN-T) at its wholly owned Blue Ice property on the Nunavut portion of Victoria Island has yielded a high count of microdiamonds and the potential for larger stones.

A 208.6-kg surface sample collected from several sites along a 350-metre section of the Sculptor prospect yielded 186 microdiamonds and 68 macros, including 45 stones exceeding 0.5 mm in two dimensions and six diamonds greater than 1 mm in two directions. (A macro is defined here as exceeding 0.5 mm in at least one dimension.)

Using the more detailed square mesh sieve classification scheme, nine of the larger diamonds were confined to a 0.6-to-0.85-mm square mesh size, two stones were caught between 0.85 and 1.18 mm square mesh, and two diamonds exceeded a 1.18-mm square mesh classification.

The three largest stones recovered measure 2.22 by 2.05 by 1.1 mm, 1.57 by 1.28 by 0.92 mm, and 1.57 by 1.54 by 0.68 mm.

The Sculptor showing forms part of a large kimberlite dyke system, 2.5 km west of the Sand Piper kimberlite body, which was re-tested this year by Diamonds North with two angle holes. Sculptor is a coarse-grained, competent, hypabyssal kimberlite containing abundant olivine macrocrysts and numerous indicator minerals.

A further 100 metres north of Sculptor, Diamonds North uncovered the Pegasus showing, which coincides with a 50-to-75-metre-wide geophysical anomaly that extends for more than 2 km. Caustic fusion analysis on a 336.5-kg sample of the Pegasus kimberlite, taken from two test pits, revealed 45 micros and seven macros, including four stones exceeding 0.5 mm in two dimensions. The largest stone was caught between, in a 0.6-to-0.85-mm square mesh screen size.

A third kimberlite showing, dubbed Zeta, was found a further 2 km west of Sculptor. Just 18 micros and two macros were recovered from 234.2 kg of sample collected from a single surface exposure of Zeta. The largest diamond recovered was a single stone confined to a 0.6-to-0.85-mm square mesh sieve classification.

The three showings are believed to be parallel, distinct, en echelon bodies that occur in the central part of the so-called Galaxy trend, apparently a 20-km-long, northwest-oriented structural corridor.

Diamonds North completed a brokered private placement of 2.4 million flow-through units priced at 70 each to raise almost $1.7 million.

The microdiamond distribution of the three newly discovered showings on Diamonds North’s Blue Ice property is shown in the accompanying table: