During the ongoing 2011 diamond exploration program at the Chidliak project in Nunavut, joint-venture partners Peregrine Diamonds (PGD-T) and BHP Billiton (BHP-N, BLT-L) have already found another four new kimberlites: CH-52, CH-53, CH-54 and CH-55.
Chidliak covers 8,580 sq. km on the south end of Baffin Island, and is now home to 55 kimberlites, including the latest kimberlite discoveries, which brings the count of kimberlites found this year to five.
“We continue to discover kimberlites at a very fast pace at Chidliak, and we believe that many more will be found in this rapidly growing new Canadian diamond district,” Peregrine’s president Brooke Clements said in a press release. He added that so far, seven of the 35 kimberlites tested show economic potential in an Arctic setting.
The four new discoveries, plus the CH-51 kimberlite discovered in April, all have an estimated surface expression of 1 hectare.
Kimberlite CH-52, 200 metres east of Sunrise camp, was discovered by a vertical reverse-circulation (RC) hole, hitting 25 metres of overburden, then 21 metres of gneiss before intersecting 19 metres of kimberlite. The company says CH-52 will see core drilling if the initial results are promising.
Kimberlite CH-53, some 5 km northeast of CH-28, was found by a core hole drilled at an inclination of minus 50 degrees into a known anomaly. The hole returned 8 metres of ice and water, and then 40 metres of overburden and 32 metres of gneiss, before intersecting kimberlite at 80 metres.
About 11 km northeast of Sunrise camp, Peregrine, the operator of the ongoing $17.7-million program, uncovered CH-54, which hit kimberlite breccia at 43 metres depth after passing through ice, water and overburden. From 43 metres to 160 metres, the company notes finding kimberlite with various amounts of gneiss and country rock breccia, before the hole returned another 35 metres of gneiss.
CH-55, about 17 km south of CH-17 and CH-51, cut kimberlite breccia at 51 metres after passing 9 meters of overburden and 42 metres of gneiss.
Along with the new discoveries, Peregrine drilled core holes into two kimberlites – CH-17 and CH-28 – which were discovered last year.
The junior punched its first core hole into CH-28. At an inclination of minus 45 degrees, this cut 180 metres of kimberlite starting from 11 metres. Based on drill and geophysical data, kimberlite CH-28 looks to be two hectares in area.
Discovered under a lake, CH-17 initially did not return enough metres for diamond testing in 2010. But in this year’s first quarter program, CH-17 intersected 118 metres of kimberlite starting from 47 metres.
The company says it will examine drill core gathered this year from the CH-51, CH-53, CH-54, CH-55, CH-17 and CH-28 kimberlites, and from the RC drilling at CH-52 for diamonds by caustic fusion at the Saskatchewan Research Council’s Geoanalytical Laboratories. The results are anticipated for the third quarter.
Peregrine also completed an 11,000 line-kilometre heli-borne magnetic-electromagnetic geophysical survey, and is combing through the data to pick prospective targets for drilling. It notes that anomaly 557, located 300 metres south of CH-55, is next-in-line for drilling.
The junior adds that four other targets tested this year did not return kimberlite, and says it will drill two new kimberlite targets before working on the diamondbearing CH-31 and CH-33 kimberlites.
On news of the four kimberlite discoveries, Peregrine shares shed 5¢ to close at $2 on 101,111 shares traded.
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