Drilling on the Churchill diamond project in Nunavut’s Rankin Inlet has identified seven new kimberlites for partners
The new bodies bring to 30 the total number of confirmed kimberlite occurrences on the project. Drilling targeted several magnetic anomalies and re-tested one target where an earlier hole was lost because of bad ground conditions.
Representative samples from each of the kimberlites will be analyzed for microdiamonds at the Saskatchewan Research Council. Other samples will be collected for petrographic and indicator-mineral analysis.
Shear has now shifted its focus to land-based targets from lake-based ones, with drilling slated to continue through the summer. The campaign aims to test up to 50 targets.
More recently, ground prospecting turned up the property’s first outcropping of kimberlite. The dyke-like exposure includes a north-south-trending contact and abundant float material less than 10 metres up-ice of a highly anomalous till sample collected in 2004. That sample yielded more than 580 coarse grains (greater than 0.5 mm), with many retaining primary surface textures. Microprobe analysis confirmed 190 G-9 pyropes and two G10 garnets.
The outcrop is in the North Corridor, 15 km northeast of the main Josephine River Corridor. Some 150 kg of kimberlite from two separate locations will be processed for diamonds and indicator minerals. Kimberlite boulders have also been recovered from six separate locations.
“The discovery of the up-ice source within metres of this till sample confirms our interpretation that mineral dispersions are local, narrow and ribbon-like,” says Shear CEO Pamela Strand.
Further sampling, prospecting and ground geophysics are planned for the outcrop and several nearby geophysical anomalies.
Shear operates and owns 51% of the project; Stornoway and BHP have 35% and 14% interests, respectively.
So far, the partners have discovered 32 kimberlites over a wide area on the Churchill and Churchill West projects; about a third have proved diamondiferous.
The Churchill project comprises more than 28,000 sq. km.
Meanwhile, drill-testing of 15 lake-based geophysical targets on the Aviat project on Nunavut’s Melville Peninsula failed to encounter any new kimberlite. Drilling will now test 20 land-based targets near the property’s six known diamondiferous kimberlites, including the AV-1 pipe, which produced an initial sample grade of 0.83 carat per tonne from a 10.4-tonne sample.
Drilling will also test the AV-5 kimberlite boulder occurrence, which previously returned 93 diamonds from a 48-kg sample.
Stornoway holds a 70% interest in the Aviat project; BHP Billiton, 20%; and Hunter Exploration Group, the remainder.
Be the first to comment on "JV boosts Churchill congregation (July 18, 2005)"