On the diamond trail

Afri-Can Marine Minerals

With the acquisition of the EPL 3403 project announced in October, Afri-Can Marine Minerals (AFA-V) is now advancing two seabed diamond projects off the coast of Namibia.

In exchange for 100% of EPL 3403, Afri-Can will issue 65 million shares to International Mining and Dredging Holding (IMDH) and BV Investments Four Hundred and Nine. (The concession is held by Thyme Investments, which is owned by IMDH and BV.)
The 800-sq.-km project contains two priority areas: a 16-sq.-km southeastern section that has seen sampling and is proven to host diamonds; and another 160-sq.-km northwestern section, which is untested. Previous sampling in the southern section yielded 33 diamonds weighing 14.07 carats from 24 positive samples. The four largest stones weighed 2.69, 1.73, 1.17 and 1.15 carats.

In March, Afri-Can began a month-long sampling program at EPL 3403, focusing on five targets in the southern area, and three in the northern. The company planned to take at least 185 samples of 5 sq. metres each from the southern area, and 65 samples from the northern. A ship, The Explorer, was provided by IMDH for the sampling program.

EPL 3403 is a former Namdeb concession, and lies just north of its Atlantic One mining lease 47. Namdeb, an equal partnership of De Beers and the government of Namibia, mines more than 1 million carats per year at its concessions. An estimated 95% of diamonds found at Atlantic One are gem-quality and Afri-Can says that marine diamonds from the vicinity of EPL 3403 fetch more than US$400 per carat.

Afri-Can’s other marine diamond project is its 70%-owned Block J project, farther north up the Atlantic coast. Block J has an inferred resource covering 1.7 million sq. metres with a higher-grade 1.8 km by 200-metre strip that may provide further resource upside to the north.

The company plans additional work at Block J, focusing on the northern extension of the high-grade strip to increase resources, however the timing of the program depends on results from EPL 3403.

The company completed a private placement of 29.8 million units (consisting of one share and half a warrant) at 7¢ apiece for total proceeds of $2.1 million in March.

Afri-Can also has the HAIB porphyry copper joint venture in Namibia with Teck Resources (TCK.B-T, TCK-N).

Barker Minerals

At its Tasse project, 180 km south of Prince George, in B.C., Barker Minerals (BML-V) announced in February that heavy mineral stream-sediment sampling had found widespread kimberlite indicator minerals (KIMs). All seven samples analyzed  (taken in 2010) returned KIMs, including 1 pyrope peridotite garnet, 11 eclogitic garnets, 56 chromites, 126 orthopyroxenes, 312 chrome diopsides and 154 olvines. Barker says the results indicate multiple kimberlite sources on the Tasse claims.

Two samples were taken close to a hill that is coincident with a circular magnetic high. Barker says it may be part of a volcanic  vent complex and reports that vesicular breccia associated with the hill contains “abundant large clasts and xenoliths of coarse  granular olivine, pyroxene and garnet, and is considered to be mantle peridotite.”

Barker believes the hill is associated with a lamproite or kimberlite diatreme and that the mantle xenoliths in the breccia could contain diamonds. The company has identified a number of circular magnetic anomalies on the property for follow-up work and  plans to carry out mapping and sampling of bedrock targets, and a property-wide stream-sediment sampling program.

BRC  Diamondcore

In February, BRC Diamondcore (BCD-T) announced plans to resume exploration for diamonds in Province Orientale, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The program is based on the results of samples the company collected previously, but  was unable to process because of a lack of cash. Collected during a reconnaissance stream sampling program, the 285  samples returned 15 microdiamonds and indicator minerals, including ilmenites, chromites, and an eclogitic garnet.

The  company says there are several indications that the source of the diamonds may be nearby. The company has a new joint-venture agreement with Rio Tinto (RIO-N, RTP-L) at DRC North, whereby Rio will fund exploration up to the completion of a  prefeasibility study for a 70% interest in the project.

In the spring, BRC sent an exploration team to the project to complete more detailed sampling of anomalous areas of interest. There are numerous alluvial diamond diggings on the project, but the kimberlite sources of the diamonds have not yet been  found. BRC DiamondCore has an option agreement on DRC North with the permit-holder.

The company had been unable to explore DRC North until late January because of security issues on the eastern border of the permits, in the Bafwasende region. The company says the area is now “cleared of any risks.”

In the sourthern DRC, the company has the Tshikapa project, which saw ground magnetic surveying in the first half of 2010.  BRC has identified one target there for follow-up work. BRC also has an iron ore JV with Rio Tinto in the DRC.

Diamcor Mining

Diamcor Mining (DMI-V) began work at its newly acquired Krone-Endora project in South Africa, in April. The work program will
focus on adding to the resource at the 5.9-sq.-km project (an updated resource and National Instrument 43-101 report is slated  for the third quarter), getting diamond price estimates, and identifying potential areas for trial mining. The current inferred  resource, limited to a small 310-hectare area of the project dubbed K1, is 54.3 million tonnes of gravel containing 1.3 million  carats.

Work began with a reverse-circulation (RC) drill program, to be followed by a bulk-sampling program consisting of a series of small, 25 by 25-metre pits. Tighter-spaced drilling will focus on the high-grade K1 and Confluence areas of Krone-Endora, with other areas to see 200-metre drill spacing. The bulk samples should give the company a large enough parcel of diamonds (around 2,000 carats) for valuation. The last valuation gave Krone-Endora stones a price of US$100 a carat, but Diamcor says that the 2005 estimate is conservative. Since then, prices have risen by about 30%.

The Krone-Endora property, acquired for $2 million from De Beers, is next to the diamond giant’s Venetia mine. Venetia is South Africa’s largest diamond producer, yielding 4.3 million carats last year. Diamcor first announced the acquisition in late 2008, but the deal only closed in February, after a number of conditions, including regulatory approvals for the transfer of prospecting rights were met.

The Krone-Endora deposit consists of an upper alluvial layer and a more concentrated basal eluvial layer thought to represent a direct shift of material from Venetia. The eluvial material grades between 11 to 26 carats per tonne, compared with 0.5 to 1 carat
for the alluvial material. The deposit (both the alluvial and eluvial layers) extends from surface to about 15 metres depth.

In late March, Diamcor announced a strategic partnership with Tiffany & Co. (TIF-N). The diamond retailer signed an offtake
agreement for a right of first refusal for up to 100% of production from Krone-Endora at fair market value. Diamcor subsidiary  DMI Minerals South Africa will maintain the right to market any diamonds not purchased by Tiffany’s diamond sourcing and polishing subsidiary, Laurelton Diamonds South Africa.

In connection with the strategic alliance, Diamcor closed a $5.5-million financing with Tiffany, including a $3.5 million, five year term loan and $2-million convertible debenture. In a release, the company said
it now has enough money to “advance, develop and deploy the infrastructure to begin the mining and production of rough diamonds from Krone-Endora.”

Diamcor plans to begin scaled trial mining and make a final production decision in the third quarter, once the updated 43-101 is completed. The junior owns 70% of the project, with its BEE partner, Nozala Investments, owning the remainder.

Diamonds North

Results of a bulk sample from Diamonds North’s (DDN-V) Beluga-3 kimberlite at the Amaruk project, in Nunavut, came out in December, but were disappointing. The company says the 3-hectare kimberlite could  not be the source of the “exceptional”  indicator mineral chemistry at Amaruk.

The 19-tonne sample returned 82 macrodiamonds (more than 0.85 mm in at least one dimension), with the five largest  recovered on the 1.7-mm mesh.

At a presentation at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention in March, president and CEO Mark Kolebaba said the company would try new methods to identify more subtle magnetic targets this year. Beluga-3 was the most  subtle magnetic target tested on the property so far and it contained the largest diamonds.

Kolebaba noted that the conductive overburden on the property hinders EM and that economic kimberlites have strong EM  conductors with weak magnetic signatures.

Shortly after the PDAC, the company reported that its efforts using an innovative electromagnetic geophysical method had turned up a new kind of kimberlite target at Amaruk. Several kimberlite targets greater than 400 metres in diameter have been identified that have KIM support.

“For the first time, we have identified priority EM targets on Amaruk,” Kolebaba said in a press release. “I believe this could be a significant breakthrough for discovering economic kimberlites in the region.”

The potential of this EM method to find new promising targets led Diamonds North to make a deal with Indicator Minerals (IME-V), which holds the Barrow property adjacent to Amaruk. In return for spending $2 million on exploration at Barrow over five years, Diamonds North can earn up to 60% of the project. The agreement gives Diamonds North, which will be the operator of the joint venture, access to a high-quality database on the adjacent property, as well as a larger prospective area in which to test its EM methods.

Diamonds North announced in January that it had identified 10 priority gold targets at the HI-2 prospect on its Halket Inlet project, in Nunavut. They will see further work in 2011. The company also expanded the Garnet Gold Showing target at Amaruk.

Perhaps most notably, however, Minerals and Metals Group (MMG) confirmed that it would spend $1.65 million exploring  Amaruk for nickel in 2011. MMG will examine 22 target areas this year using airborne EM and is earning up to a 75% interest in  nickel and other base metals on the property by spending $6 million and carrying out a prefeasibility study on any base metal  deposit that my be discovered.

Dianor Resources
Site preparation for a 50,000-tonne bulksampling program at Dianor Resources’ (DOR-V) Leadbetter project, near Wawa,
Ont., has been delayed. Work was supposed to begin last fall, but company president and CEO John Ryder says the timing of Dianor’s plans will depend on additional financing. At the company’s current share price of 5¢, using its $30-million equity line of credit, secured last year from Kodiak Capital Group, is too dilutive, he says. Instead, the company is looking at the iron ore potential of its Leadbetter property, and expects high interest in the bulk commodity could bring in the extra funding it needs to begin bulk sampling. Ryder also expects increased investor interest in the diamond space this year because of rising rough prices.

The bulk-sampling program, which will allow Dianor to calculate a resource at the project, is expected to cost $30-35 million and take about 18 months to complete. The company has received one of two water licences necessary for the program, which will see a DMS plant built onsite and a decline constructed into the orebody.

In addition to its line of credit, in August, Dianor announced a $10-million term-credit facility with Third Eye Capital. The loan will be used for equipment purchases and to complete the bulk sample at Leadbetter, a large-tonnage, low-grade Archean  conglomerate that contains rare purple coloured diamonds as well as having potential for gold, sapphires and rubies.

Dianor completed an initial draw-down of $500,000 from its equity line of credit in October in return for issuing 7.3 million shares at 6.9¢ each. In March, it accessed another $176,669 by issuing 3.5 million shares at 5¢ apiece.

It made an initial draw of $2  million under its credit agreement with Third Eye in August, but announced it would make an early repayment of $1 million in October to avoid interest charges on the amount that was slated for site preparation last fall.

It also completed a $2-million private placement financing with four limited partnerships associated with MineralFields Group in December. The placement  consisted of 30.8 million units (one common share and half a warrant) at 6.5¢ apiece.

In March, the company reported it had received a statement of claim from the vendors of the Leadbetter property for diamonds recovered before November 2008, when Dianor acquired all mineral interests at the property, or $250,000. The company is examining its legal rights and options.

Dianor has a 30% interest in the Mori joint venture, 3 km north of Leadbetter, with partners Metalex Ventures (MTX-V) (30%) and Mori Diamonds (40%). It also has nine properties in Quebec, including Ekomiak V, where results of a 6-tonne sample of diamond conglomerate are pending, and PEM.

GGL Resources

GGL Resources (GGL-V) won’t be doing any diamond exploration itself this year, but its CH project, in the Northwest Territories will see a $650,000 program carried out by Rio Tinto (RIO-N, RTP-L). Rio has an option to earn 100% of the 60 by 80-km property (subject to royalties) by spending $10 million on exploration before the end of 2016.

The project is just 30 km west of the Diavik mine, owned by Rio Tinto (60%) and Harry Winston Diamond (HW-T, HWD-N) (40%).

Work at CH will consist of drilling of geophysical targets that were identified in ground gravity surveys conducted last year at the 567-sq.-km property. GGL president and CEO Raymond Hrkac said Rio hoped to drill up to nine targets.

This year’s program will satisfy a requirement in the option agreement that Rio must spend $900,000 by the end of this year.  Starting in 2013, it must also make payments to GGL totalling $1 million by the end of the earn-in period.

GGL also has a 40%-owned joint venture with De Beers on concessions next to the Gahcho Kué project, owned by De Beers  and Mountain Province Diamonds (MPV-T, MDM-X), as well as other 100%-owned diamond projects. Results  continued to flow from Metalex Ventures’ (MTX-V) Kyle Lake project, in Ontario, where the company conducted bulk samples at  its U2 and T1 kimberlites last year.

As of March 11, the company had reported results from three of 11 RC drill holes into U2. The total sample from the 9.3-hectare  kimberlite weighed 460 tonnes.

The third hole at U2 returned a white 0.72-carat diamond, as did the fourth hole, which was still still being processed at  presstime in April.

From the first three holes (which consisted of 125 tonnes of material – kimberlite, crater infill and limestone mixed with  kimberlite), 758 diamonds larger than 0.425 mm were recovered, 46% of them white. Measured by weight, 60.7% of the stones were white, as the pr
oportion of whites increased with size. The company also pointed to a high proportion of coloured  diamonds as a positive: so far, 26% of the stones are grey, 19% are brown, 8% are yellow, 1% are pink, and 0.4% green.  Metalex says the size distribution of the diamonds is very coarse.

The U2 results followed on the heels of December results from 19 of 20 holes drilled at T1. The T1 bulk sample, totalling 447  tonnes, also yielded a very high percentage of white and coloured diamonds. The sample yielded 11,632 diamonds larger than 0.425 mm, or 2,280 larger than the 0.85-mm sieve size. Portions from each of the 20 holes will be reprocessed because the  company believes there are diamonds that haven’t been recovered from the core, which is quite hard and dense at depth.

Arctic Star Diamond (ADD-V) holds a 5.8% stake in Kyle Lake, which is located about 62 km west of De Beers’ Victor mine.

Metalex also has a diamond/metal project in Quebec and a prospective project in Morocco, a diamond project in Angola, and a joint venture in Ontario’s Ring of Fire. The company also holds projects in Mali and Greenland.

In December, Metalex raised $7.3 million in an equity offering of flow-through (90¢ apiece) and non-flow-through units (70¢  apiece). And in February, it announced a private placement of up to $10 million consisting of flow-though shares at $1 apiece
and units (one share and half a warrant) at 85¢.

Chairman Charles Fipke, who owns more than 22% of Metalex shares, subscribed for an additional $1.2-million private  placement – $600,000 of flow-through shares at $1 apiece and an equal amount in units of one share plus half a warrant.

The funds will be used for exploration at Metalex’s Canadian and international properties.

Olivut Resources

In February, Olivut Resources (OLV-V) signed a non-binding letter of intent with Latin American Minerals (LAT-V) to explore the 45 km by 75-km  Itapoty diamond project in Paraguay. If the agreement is finalized, the company expected to begin a work program immediately.

Under the letter of intent, Olivut will be able to earn 50% of the project by spending $250,000 within the  first year and another $750,000 in the following 18 months. Olivut would be the operator.

More than 50 diamonds have been discovered on the property in reconnaissance sampling, the majority by LAT and the rest by related parties conducting due diligence. Many of the stones lack erosional features, says LAT CEO Miles Rideout, and they appear to come from five “source localities.” It’s unclear if the source of diamonds and indicator minerals found on the property is kimberlite, lamproites or mafic dykes. Ground magnetics has revealed both dyke-like mafic bodies and circular pipe-like bodies for drill testing.

Olivut also plans a drill program this year at the Rivera diamond project, in Uruguay. It has an option to earn up to 80% of Rivera  from Orosur Mining (OSI-V). In February, the company said it was in the process of finalizing landowner agreements and drill permits for the targets identified last year. Work completed in 2010 included pit and stream sampling and shallow RC drilling. Kimberlite indicator minerals were found and shallow RC drilling (less than 110 metres depth) tested four targets.

Airborne and ground magnetic surveys have identified further targets for follow up. The company says the presence of anomalous stream sediment samples, geophysical targets, favourable structures and ultramafic material on the project means there may be diamondiferous kimberlites in the area.

To earn 51% of Rivera, Olivut must spend $250,000 by June 2010 and a total of $750,000 by the end of 2011. In addition, a 2011 program is planned for its 100%-owned HOAM diamond project in the Northwest Territories. Last year at HOAM, where the  company has so far discovered 23 kimberlite bodies, Olivut continued to search for the source of KIMs collected in stream-sediment and till samples. The company says that reinterpretation and analysis of data combined with geophysical work has identified new targets at the project.

In November, Olivut shares made a run up on no news; the company put out a press release saying there was no material  information that would account for the trading activity. Olivut has 31.6 million shares outstanding and has traded between 26¢  and $1.94 over the past year. Shares were at $1.65 at presstime in mid-April.

Peregrine Diamonds

At the end of March, Peregrine Diamonds (PGD-T) announced a $17.7-million work program for 2011 for its 49%-owned Chidliak project, in Nunavut. Peregrine, which remains operator of the joint venture with BHP Billiton (BHP-N, BLT-L) at 51%, is hunting for big kimberlites this year, like the 5-hectare CH-31 kimberlite discovered in 2010, and CH-33, which could be 7 hectares or larger. The other main aim of the program is to continue to evaluate known kimberlites through core drilling and/or mini-bulk sampling. All the work is being carried out with an eye on 2012, when the partners hope to collect bulk samples that  will yield large enough parcels of diamonds for valuation.

Mini-bulk samples are planned for 2011 at the CH-31 kimberlite (5 tonnes) and the 2-hectare CH-28 kimberlite (20 tonnes). The property will see up to 13,000 metres of drilling (both core and RC), focusing on targets with larger footprints. Drilling began on lake-based targets, like CH-17, in late March.

Ground geophysics are planned to follow up on 21 geophysical anomalies of more than 2 hectares; drilling will follow on any of  the more promising targets this year.

The partners have built a third camp at Chidliak, Aurora, which is 42 km north of the Discovery camp in the northern focus area of the 8,580-sq.-km project.

In a presentation at the PDAC convention in Toronto in March, Peregrine president Brooke Clements said that the project,  where 50 kimberlites have so far been discovered, will likely see bulk sampling in 2012, on the CH- 6 and CH-7 kimberlites, both in the better explored 8-kmradius southern focus area.

The company has released several bits of highly anticipated news in recent months.

Long-awaited results of a mini-bulk sample  at the CH- 6 kimberlite were revealed in December. The 14.1-tonne sample was taken by core drilling from four different units of the 0.8-hectare kimberlite. In total, CH-6 returned 523 carats of commercial-sized stones for an average grade of 2.84 carats per tonne. Grades varied from 2.03 carats per tonne in Unit D from a 7.56-tonne sample, to 6.81 carats per tonne in Unit A from a 1-tonne sample.

Nine of the stones were 0.5 carat or larger. Of these, three diamonds were white/colourless, two off-white, three yellow and one grey. The company said that four were octahedrons, three macles, one a tetrahexahedron, and one an aggregate.

The CH-6 results built on positive results from CH-7 released in November.

A 47.2 tonne mini-bulk sample from CH-7 returned 502 commercial-sized diamonds (larger than the 0.85-mm sieve size) fora  grade of 1.04 carats per tonne. Fifteen of the stones were 0.5 carat or larger. The four biggest were: a 6.53-carat, grey,  translucent distorted crystal, a 2.18-carat white/colourless transparent octahedron, a 1.24-carat, off-white, transparent  aggregate, and a 0.98-carat off-white, transparent octahedroid.

And microdiamond results from an 840-kg sample taken from CH-31, the largest kimberlite found at Chiliak so far at 5 hectares, came out in October. The sample returned 233 diamonds larger than the 0.106-mm sieve size, including five bigger than the  0.85-mm mesh. The largest was a 1.15-carat, off-white, tetrahexahedron stone that came from CH-31D, one of four phases of  the kimberlite.

The company r
aised $8.4 million in a private placement priced at $2.80 per share in March, having already closed a $12-million private placement of 4.8 million units (one share and half a warrant) priced at $2.50 apiece in November.

Peregrine announced in early December that BHP Billion would maintain its 51% interest in Chidliak, rather than opting to  increase its stake to 58% by fully funding the project to a bankable feasibility study.

In other news, results from Nanuq North, an equal partnership with Indicator Minerals (IME-V), the operator, came out in  November. A 1,008-kg sample from the NQN-001 kimberlite at the project in Nunavut returned 612 diamonds larger than the  0.075-mm sieve size, but none were larger than the 0.85-mm mesh. The partners will formulate a plan for 2011 at Nanuq North  after they receive indicator mineral results from 96 till samples collected last year.

Peregrine’s president, Brooke Clements, received the Hugo Dummett Diamond award from the Association of Mineral  Exploration British Columbia (AME BC) in December for his role in the 2001 discovery of the Renard cluster of kimberlites, in Quebec. Clements was vice-president of exploration for Ashton Mining of Canada at the time, and led the team that made the  find. The project is now being advanced by Stornoway Diamond (SWY-T).