Drilling resumes at Fort a la Corne

Vancouver — With a $4.8-million budget in hand, the Fort la Corne joint-venture partners have resumed drilling on the Saskatchewan diamond play.

Partners De Beers Canada Exploration, Kensington Resources (KRT-V) and Cameco (CCO-T) have completed three of the 16 holes planned for this round of drilling.

The aim of the program is to evaluate the 140, 141 and 150 kimberlite bodies.

The new holes will help pinpoint the location for a second bout of drilling, which will involve a larger-diameter (24-inch) reverse-circulation machine. Mini-bulk samples will be collected from eight RC holes into kimberlite 141 in order to recover a larger parcel of diamonds for valuation.

On the 141 body, results include:

• Hole 6 — 142.5 metres of kimberlite from 103.5 metres down-hole;
• Hole 7 — 129 metres of kimberlite from 109.5 metres down-hole; and
• Hole 8 — 164 metres of kimberlite from 109.5 metres down-hole.

The rigs are turning on holes 9 and 10. The first hole is still in kimberlite and has cut 210 metres of the body. The second has hit 57.5 metres.

Earlier in the year, a 251.8-tonne bulk sample from the 141 kimberlite returned 21.06 carats of diamonds. Based on the limited results, De Beers modeled a grade of 18 carats per 100 tonnes with a best-fit value of US$153 per carat, or US$28 per tonne. The 141 body is estimated to contain 395 million tonnes of kimberlite.

Kimberlite 150 will be tested with two large-diameter RC holes. The body has a predicted grade of 16 carats per 100 tonnes and shows good potential for larger diamonds.

The 255-sq.-km Fort la Corne project is east of Price Albert and hosts 69 confirmed kimberlites. Forty-nine of the bodies are diamondiferous and 34 have yielded stones that are larger than 1 mm in at least one dimension.

De Beers and Kensington each hold a 42.25% stake. Cameco and its wholly owned subsidiary, UEM, hold the remaining 15.5%.

De Beers Canada is a subsidiary of South African-based De Beers Consolidated Mines.