DIAMOND PAGE — Twin Gold finds diamonds in Ungava

Toronto-based junior Twin Gold (TWG-T) has discovered diamonds in a grab sample derived from two dykes in the Torngat Mountains, east of Ungava Bay in northern Quebec.

The sample, which weighed 10.9 kg, contained 26 diamonds, 22 of which where microdiamonds (less than 0.5 mm in length). The company describes 24 of the diamonds as being white and 20 as being transparent.

The grab sample was collected from kimberlite rubble at the base of two parallel, vertical kimberlite dykes named Torngat 2 and 3, which are 3 metres apart and 0.6 metre and 1 metre wide, respectively.

Since staking the discovery claims along the rocky cliffs of the Alluviaq fjord in June, Twin Gold has boosted its holding to a 331-sq.-km area encompassing a cluster of 12 dykes.

Diamonds were first discovered in the area within a kimberlite dyke named Torngat 1, about 700 metres from Dykes 2 and 3. The dyke was sampled as part of a small-scale program in the early 1990s by James Bourne, a professor at Universite du Quebec Montreal, and a group of geology students. (Bourne now serves as a consultant to Twin Gold.)

Twin Gold director Dallas Davis notes that a 1.5-mm diamond found in a 30-kg sample taken from the Torngat 1 dyke was casually described as an “accessory mineral” and only given passing reference in a graduate-level petrological thesis published in French in 1997.

Twin Gold is collecting a 1-tonne kimberlite sample from the area and plans to carry out an airborne geophysical study this winter.