Vancouver — A 5.83-tonne sample collected from the Potentilla kimberlite has confirmed the presence of commercial-sized stones on the Kikerk Lake property in the north Slave Craton region of Nunavut.
Ashton Mining of Canada (ACA-T) collected 4.48 tonnes of materiel from the kimberlite breccia and 1.35 tonnes from the hypabyssal phase. Using a 1-mm square aperture screen, the sample gave a value of 17.5 carats per 100 tonnes, while a 0.8-mm square aperture yielded a value of 22 carats per 100 tonnes. The breccia sample gave the highest values, returning 19.2 carats per 100 tonnes. The biggest stone recovered tallied 0.34 carat, with the second largest coming in at 0.09 carat.
No further work is planned on the pipe at this time, as Ashton shifts focus to the nearby Stellaria pipe.
Earlier this year, a 105.4 kg sample collected from the discovery drill core returned 66 microdiamonds (0.1-to-0.5 mm in two dimensions) and 13 macrodiamonds (greater than 0.5 in at least one dimension).
Moving 40 metres northwest, an August drill hole cut 21 metres of kimberlite under 68 metres of cover. The latest drilling suggests that the body may mark a 13 metre wide dyke, dipping at 72 degrees to the northwest with a potential strike length of 400 metres. Ashton has collected 100 kg of core for additional microdiamond counts.
Stellaria is oriented along a 2-km-long linear geophysical feature. A portion of this feature sits directly up-ice of a kimberlite indicator mineral train hosting a significant G10 garnet population.
The Kikerk Lake property is held 52.5% by Ashton, 30% by Northern Empire Minerals (NEM-V) and 17.5% by Caledonia Mining (CAL-T). Ashton can increase its interest to 59.5% by carrying Caledonia through to completion of a feasibility study. Northern Empire retains its 30% working interest.
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