Shore Gold wraps up Star pipe bulk sampling (May 23, 2005)

Vancouver — The final set of diamond recoveries from the Star kimberlite pipe in Saskatchewan have returned several large diamonds.

Shore Gold (SGF-T) reports that the 14th and final bulk sample of almost 3,300 dry tonnes of kimberlite returned 3,823 commercial-sized diamonds (greater than 1.18 mm square mesh screen) weighing a total of 544 carats.

Eighty-three stones weighed more than 1 carat, and 19 weighed more than 2 carats (including 12.2-, 8.5-, 6.2- and 5.7-carat diamonds).

The sampling consisted of 27,837 dry tonnes, from which 4,049 carats of diamonds were extracted.

The first sample batch — 3,050 carats valued at US$135 per carat — showed a high proportion of white stones and many larger ones (up to 19.7 carats).

The kimberlite was processed on site in a dense-media-separation circuit. The concentrate was fed through an X-ray flow-sort for diamond recovery, and the tails were run over a grease table to capture any low-luminosity diamonds. The concentrates were shipped to SGS Lakefield Research for final recoveries.

“Analysis of the diamond population size distribution suggests potential for diamonds in excess of one-hundred carats from the Star Kimberlite,” says George Read, Shore Gold’s senior vice-president of exploration.