Monopros pulls diamonds from Victoria Island

The Snowy Owl kimberlite at the Victoria Island project in the Northwest Territories has yielded 75 diamonds from an 80-kg sample.

The preliminary diamond count was reported verbally to partners Major General Resources (MGJ-V) and Ascot Resources (AOT-V) by De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBRS-Q), which analyzed the samples at its South African laboratory.

The 80-kg sample of the Snowy Owl kimberlite was recovered from a short reverse-circulation drill hole that penetrated only 12 metres into the kimberlite, which lies under a shallow lake.

Snowy Owl is one of five kimberlites discovered by De Beers subsidiary Monopros during the 1998 summer drill program, which tested eight targets. Microdiamond results were previously reported for the other four kimberlites and are summarized as follows:

• Golden Plover yielded 39 diamonds from a 160-kg sample;
• Longspur returned nine stones, including one diamond larger than 1 mm, from 80 kg of sample;
• Phalarope yielded six diamonds from a 160-kg sample; and
• the Whimbrel returned just one stone from 160 kg of drill sample.

The Snowy Owl, Golden Plover and Longspur kimberlites were considered high-priority targets, as they were defined up-ice of kimberlite indicator mineral occurrences.

Final results from the lab analysis will provide details on the stones’ size and weight, and will assist in assessing the size distribution of the recovered diamonds at the 0.5-mm threshold.

The cluster of five kimberlites occupies an 80-sq.-km area near the northern border of the adjacent Monopros property, where that company has made several diamondiferous kimberlite discoveries containing macrodiamonds.

Monopros can earn a 51% interest in the 2-million-acre Victoria Island property by spending $2 million on exploration and making payments totalling $200,000 over three years. Once vested, property owners Major General and Ascot will each retain a 24.5% working interest in the property.