Vancouver — The Canadian exploration division of De Beers Consolidated Mines, now a subsidiary of Anglo American (AAUK-Q), has confirmed the presence of commercial size diamonds at Pele Mountain Resource‘s (YPN-V) Cristal showing on the Festival diamond property near Wawa, Ontario.
With only 25% of the concentrate from a 100-tonne bulk sample collected by Pele Mountain in September processed, a total of 29 diamonds weighing 0.54 carats have been recovered. The largest stone tallied 0.07 carats. These results mark sorting down to a lower cut off of 1 mm from only 852.2 kg out of the 3,395 kg of concentrate. The remaining 75% of the concentrate will be analyzed early next year leading to a final grade and diamond size determination for the sample.
“The presence of commercial size diamonds at Cristal represents an important exploration advancement and successfully achieves the goal that was set for this first bulk sample,” says Pele Mountain’s CEO, Al Shefsky.
The bulk sample was taken from an outcrop of diamond-bearing, pyroclastic ultramafic breccia rock near the centre of the showing. The breccia facies make up the base of the unit, and the pyroclastics represent the top, with ash tuffs increasing in proportion toward the upper contact. The showing measures at least 200 metres in width.
Surface sampling of all facies of the Cristal prospect has shown that the unit is diamondiferous. Fifteen samples weighing a total of 171.3 kg yielded 327 microdiamonds from all sieve-size fractions up to and including 0.6 mm square mesh. At least 10 stones exceed 0.5 mm in one dimension. The best results have come from samples taken near the contact between the pyroclastics and more brecciated material. Three samples, weighing a combined 39.4 kg, returned 159 micros. The 100-tonne bulk test sample was collected in the immediate area of these samples from a 10-by-10-metre section.
The 101-sq-km Festival property lies 25 km north of Wawa.
Be the first to comment on "Commercial stones confirmed at Cristal"