Partners ready Mistassini drill targets

Partners ready Mistassini drill targets Partners Canabrava Diamond (CNB-V) and Majescor Resources (MAJ-V) have received encouraging results from the analysis of 500 individual kimberlite indicator mineral grains derived from their Mistassini project in the Otish Mountain region of Quebec.

The suite is dominated by ilmenite, with pyrope garnet and chromite also well represented. The results also include rare recoveries of mantle-derived olivine. Particularly significant is the presence of several good quality G10 garnets, as well as diamond inclusion chromites (up to 64.2 wt.% Cr₂O₃). The recovery of perovskite-mantled ilmenite also suggests a proximal kimberlite source. The partners say the indicator mineral chemistry and assemblage also confirms a distinct and local kimberlite cluster source.

The two have also completed a 7,370-line-km airborne geophysical survey over most of the project area. Processing and interpretation of the data is expected by the end of the month. The survey was designed to define drill targets at the head of each of the property’s previously defined kimberlite indicator mineral trains.

Covering 1,216 sq. km, the property stretches from the northern tip of Lake Mistassini to the western limit of the Otish Mountains. Staking of another 494 sq. km still requires the approval of the Ministry of Natural Resources Quebec.

Reconnaissance sampling by Majescor this year has turned up several kimberlite indicator mineral dispersion trains on the claims. The company says that the trains have a different chemistry and assemblage, and therefore source, than those at the Portage property also in Quebec.

Adjacent to the Portage property and about 85 km north of Mistassini, joint venture partners Ashton Mining of Canada (ACA-T) and Quebec government-owned Soquem tabled encouraging diamond counts from two kimberlitic bodies, dubbed Renard 1 and 2.

Canabrava can earn a half-interest in the Mistassini project by spending $1.35 million on exploration by Dec. 2004. Another 494 sq. km of land is still pending approval with the Ministry of Natural Resources Quebec.