Results are starting to roll in for a bulk sample conducted at the Kyle Lake joint venture in northern Ontario this spring. In late September, Metalex Ventures (MTX-V), which holds 91.5% of the project, reported results from 12 of 20 reverse-circulation holes drilled at the T1 kimberlite pipe.
Dense media separation (DMS) recovered 7,748 commercial-sized diamonds — larger than 0.425 mm — from a 447-ton sample. Of the total, 1,609 of the stones are larger than 0.85 mm.
About 38% of the diamonds are white, while 33 are brown, 27.5% grey, and 1.5% green. Less than 1% are other colours, with 5 blue, 3 pink and 3 yellow stones recovered.
In a release, Metalex said the high proportion of white diamonds (compared with about an average of about 20% in producing mines around the world) as well as the presence of green, blue, pink and yellow stones, was very encouraging.
The diamond count is expected to increase. At depth, the T1 kimberlite is hard and dense, so coarse fragments (larger than 2 mm) from the DMS concentrate will be re-crushed to improve diamond liberation.
The 3-hectare T1 kimberlite is located in the James Bay lowlands, just 70 km west of De Beers Canada’s Victor diamond mine.
Arctic Star Diamond (ADD-V) owns 8.5% of the Kyle Lake project.
A 460-ton bulk sample was also taken at another Kyle Lake kimberlite — the 10-hectare U2 pipe, 60 km west of Victor. The softer, less dense material from U2 is expected to be easier to process than the T1 sample.
In addition, Metalex drilled 10 core holes this summer to test three anomalies at the Attawapiskat JV, 7 km south of the Victor mine. The 61.1%-owned project is a JV with Arctic Star (21.4%) and Big Red Diamond (DIA-V) (17.5%) on claims optioned from Dumont Nickel (DNI-V).
And in May, Metalex announced the cancellation of a deal to acquire a diamond project in Brazil from Iciena Ventures.
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