Shore Gold cuts thick kimberlite intercept

Junior Shore Gold (SGF-V) has intercepted a possible feeder zone of the Star kimberlite body in Saskatchewan.

The fourth hole in a second round of drilling has cut 539.4 metres of kimberlite. Hole 20 was shut down in kimberlite at a depth of 627 metres. Shore says the core displays uniform diatreme texture throughout the lower portions of the hole and contains abundant mantle-derived xenoliths, pyrope and ecologitic garnets.

Hole 20 was collared 150 metres west of hole 4, drilled last year, which intersected 117.5 metres of continuous kimberlite. A 175.9-kg sample from hole 4 returned 21 microdiamonds and six macrodiomonds (a macro is here defined as measuring greater than 0.5 mm in at least one dimension).

A further 200 metres to the north, hole 9, in the 2000 program, had pulled 128 metres of continuous kimberlite. A 194-kg sample from that hole yielded 35 micros and nine macros. Hole 7, drilled 200 metres south of hole 20, intersected 128.8 metres of continuous kimberlite. Twenty-nine micros and five macros were recovered from 174.2 kg of split drill core.

The Star property is 60 km east of Prince Albert, at the southern end of the Fort la Corne kimberlite field, which extends over a 45-km distance and contains some 70 kimberlite bodies. The kimberlites are in the form of stacked lenses composed predominantly of pyroclastic crater-facies and covered by as much as 125 metres of unconsolidated glacial overburden.

Last year, Shore tested a large magnetic anomaly measuring 2 sq. km. The 16 vertical holes intersected multiple horizons of kimberlite over thicknesses ranging from 30 metres in hole 11 to 145 metres in hole 7. Intervals of continuous kimberlite ranged from 5 metres in hole 11 to 128 metres in hole 9.

Split core from 15 NQ-sized Holes (1.87 inches core diameter) was analyzed for microdiamonds at Kennecott Canada’s laboratory in Thunder Bay, Ont. A total of 1,494.5 kg yielded 244 micros and 76 macros weighing a combined 0.404 carat. The results from one PQ-sized hole (3.34 inches core diameter) are still pending.

The largest recovered stone is a fragment measuring 2 mm, with a weight of 0.05 carat.

This year, a second round of drilling is stepping out beyond the existing boundaries of the deposit. Shore says it has encountered intercepts exceeding 30 metres of thickness in an area totalling 4 sq. km. The first three holes, nos. 17 through 19, tested the northeast section.

Hole 17 was collared 400 metres north of hole 96-2, the most northeastern hole, and intersected 31.4 metres of kimberlite. Hole 18 stepped out 400 metres to the east of hole 17 and cut 46.7 metres of kimberlite, whereas hole 19 was spotted a further 450 metres to the southeast and hit 25.5 metres of kimberlite.

Holes 22 and 23 were drilled within the main body and returned 126.2 metres and 90.5 metres of kimberlite, respectively.