DIAMONDS THE TALK AT PDAC

Adiamond play in Canada explodes into international prominence. It fires up a segment of the virtually dormant speculative equity market and transforms formerly no-name juniors into front-page names. And unquestionably the Lac de Gras diamond discovery in the Northwest Territories will be the most talked-about exploration play at this year’s annual convention (the 61st) of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada. Face it. Diamonds are an explorationist’s best friend.

Dia Met Minerals made the discovery that sparked staking to such a level (27,000 sq. km.) that the 7,000-sq.-km. Hemlo rush pales beside it. But the whole play owes its existence to the tenacity of a geological bloodhound named Charles Fipke. His determined efforts began in earnest in the Territories in 1981. He was a geologist under contract to Superior Oil who, along with Hugo Dummett, a Superior Oil geologist, was sampling for diamonds in the MacKenzie Mountains. De Beers, the company synonymous with diamonds the world over, was in the same neck of the woods.

Superior eventually dropped out. But Fipke persevered, working privately at first and then creating Dia Met Minerals in 1985. From 1985-1989, he sampled for indicator minerals, such as pyrope garnet, ilmenite, and chrome diopside, in a wide stretch from the MacKenzie River to Baker Lake near the Hudson Bay coast.

The search narrowed to the Lac de Gras area from 1989 to 1991, where Fipke continued sampling and staking prospective ground. In April, 1990, during a chance fly-over of Point Lake, Fipke, noting from the air the ring-like structure of the lake, theorized it might be a kimberlitic crater. Fipke ordered the chopper down and in the ensuing ground search amid ice and snow a large crystal of chrome diopside was found.

That find convinced BHP Minerals Canada that Fipke was on to somethng. BHP’s interest was no doubt influenced by the fact that Hugo Dummett, Fipke’s associate back in the days with Superior Oil, was working at the time with BHP.

The rest is history. It’s been well documented how BHP, working in joint venture with Dia Met, collared a hole at Point Lake and discovered the first kimberlite pipe. In November, 1992, a 59-kg. sample yielded 81 small diamonds.

“At the time,” recalls Charles Fipke, “there was nobody else sampling and staking (for diamonds in the area).”

How was it that he kept it all so hush-hush through the years of sampling and staking? If anyone asked, Fipke told The Northern Miner Magazine, “I said I was looking for gold, which wasn’t untrue. Right at our camp in an esker we have found gold and behind the camp we’ve found some massive sulphides.”

Whether or not a diamond mine springs from the kimberlites of the Lac de Gras area remains to be seen. There are believers, such as Fipke and Chris Jennings, president of SouthernEra Resources (another junior in the area) and thousands of investors who’ve put money on the line. And there are unbelievers or, at least, those who would adopt a wait-and-see attitude. Perhaps they’re mindful of the Saskatchewan diamond hunt a few years ago. That play has quieted down, although it isn’t dead yet.

Nevertheless, Lac de Gras has certainly propelled diamond exploration to the fore in Canada.