DIAMOND PAGE — Mountain Province buoyed by Kennady Lake results

A large-diameter reverse-circulation bulk drill sample collected this past winter from the 5034 pipe at Kennady Lake in the Northwest Territories has yielded positive results.

Situated 120 km south of the Lac de Gras region, Kennady Lake is part of the AK property, in which Monopros can earn a 60% interest. Property owner Mountain Province Mining (MPV-T) is carried to a 36% interest, whereas partner Camphor Ventures (CFV-V) is carried to 4%.

Monopros, the Canadian exploration division of De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBRS-Q), recovered 980 carats of diamonds by processing the first 573 tonnes of a 614-tonne kimberlite bulk sample. The indicated grade was 1.71 carats per tonne, based on a commercial size 1.5-mm square screen cutoff. (By comparison, the previously modeled grade, based on last year’s 56-tonne sample, was 1.6 carats per tonne.) The 5034 pipe is estimated to contain a kimberlite resource of 15 million tonnes.

The three largest diamonds recovered weighed 10, 4.9 and 4.85 carats. In addition:

• seven stones weighed greater than 3 carats;
• 42 weighed more than 1 carat;
• 113 weighed 50 points (half a carat) and 1 carat; and
• 606 stones weighed between 20 points (one-fifth of a carat) and 50 points (half a carat).

The largest diamond recovered in last year’s test sample was 1.9 carats, though a 2.88-carat stone was recovered from a 104-tonne mini-bulk sample

carried out in 1996.

Diamond valuations are expected later this summer. After receiving results from last year’s test sample, De Beers estimated an average value of US$51 per carat for the 5034 diamonds. The valuation of the diamonds from the current bulk sample will provide a more accurate measure.

The 5034 kimberlite is one of four pipes from which Monopros collected bulk samples earlier this year. Results are pending for the Hearne, Tuzo and Tesla pipe, as well as the final 41 tonnes of the 5034 pipe.

The Hearne pipe is estimated to host a resource of 8 million tonnes of kimberlite; the Tuzo pipe, 9 million tonnes; and the Tesla pipe, 4 million tonnes. The resource estimates are based on a limited number of delineation holes and the size of the geophysical anomalies.

In addition, microdiamond counts are pending for the newly discovered Wallace kimberlite, which was uncovered in Kennady Lake between the 5034 and

Hearne pipes, and the Faraday body, found 12 km northeast of the Kennady Lake cluster of pipes.