A narrow kimberlite dyke discovered during spring drilling on the Aylmer Lake West property in the Northwest Territories has yielded an encouraging number of microdiamonds.
A 1.6-metre-thick interval of olivine macrocrystic kimberlite has yielded 25 microdiamonds and two macrodiamonds from a small (4.85-kg) core sample. (A macro is here defined as exceeding 0.5 mm in one dimension.)
The Nicholas Bay kimberlite was previously tested with six core holes in 1994. A 230-kg sample had returned 176 micros and four macros. Shear re-examined those holes late last year and collected an additional 127.7 kg of kimberlite that had not previously been split or analyzed. Caustic fusion analysis on this additional material yielded 1,174 micros and six macros. The largest diamond recovered measured 0.68 by 0.64 by 0.56 mm. The highest number of stones from one sample was 110 from 5.75 kg.
The diamonds were characterized by Saskatchewan Research Council as generally clear and colourless, and as having well-formed crystal structures.
The Nicholas Bay kimberlite consists of at least two distinct phases: a tuffisitic kimberlite breccia containing numerous country rocks, and an olivine macrocrystic hypabyssal phase. Previous drilling cut intervals of up 90.7 metres of kimberlite breccia and up to 56 metres of hypabyssal kimberlite.
Shear and joint-venture partner
The Aylmer Lake West property is 340 km northeast of Yellowknife and 95 km southeast of the Ekati diamond mine. Shear is the operator and holds a 49% interest; Diamondex holds the remainder.
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