DIAMOND PAGE — Rupert finds diamonds at past-producing mine

Microdiamond analysis by Rupert Resources (RUP-V) at the past-producing Crown diamond mine in South Africa is coming up clover.

Analysis of a 185.2-metre core length of hypabyssal kimberlite intersected in the first hole of a delineation drilling program at Crown has yielded 84 macrodiamonds and 303 microdiamonds from an aggregate sample weighing 269.03 kg.

The macro count is 3.1 macros per 10 kg and the macro-to-micro ratio is 0.28. (A macro is defined here as measuring greater than 0.5 mm in at least one dimension.) Of the 387 stones, 311 are described as “white transparent.” The kimberlite samples were collected between a downhole depth of 713.5 and 898.7 metres.

Rupert can earn up to a 75% interest in the subsurface mineral portion of the mine and up to a 50% interest in a surface tailings reprocessing project. The company is currently conducting a drilling program designed to test the potentially higher-grade, hypabyssal phase of the kimberlite pipe at depth.

The first hole of the program passed through a 20-metre interval of hypabyssal kimberlite between a downhole depth of 647 and 667 metres, before intersecting a further 191.5 metres of hypabyssal kimberlite starting at

713.5 metres. The two intervals are separated by 46.5 metres of shale-rich kimberlite breccia.

The hole was stopped in hypabyssal kimberlite at a downhole depth of 905 metres, equivalent to a vertical depth of 800 metres below surface.

The second hole of the program, which was collared 230 metres north of the first, was designed to test a subsurface protrusion of the pipe termed the ‘bulge.’ However, the vertically drilled hole was stopped at a depth of 431.5 metres after it failed to encounter the hypabyssal kimberlite. The hole intersected a 30.7-metre-long interval of tufficitic kimberlite breccia starting at a depth of 333.3 metres and then continued through the bulge, a complex, highly fractured zone of lava, shale and shale-rich kimberlite breccia, to the end of the hole.

The third hole, which is in progress, stepped out 670 metres north of hole 1 and is being drilled back toward the first hole at 55. So far, the hole has encountered hypabyssal kimberlite at a downhole depth of 476 metres, and at last report, the rock type had not yet changed at a depth of 700 metres.

A fourth hole is underway into a smaller satellite pipe, which is just west of the main pipe.