THE DIAMOND PAGE — AK partners seek further valuations of diamonds from 5034 kimberlite

Diamonds recovered from the 5034 kimberlite at the AK property in the Northwest Territories will be sent to Belgium for further evaluation.

The AK-CJ properties are 130 km south of the Lac de Gras region, and are held 50% by Mountain Province Mining (MPV-V), 40% by Glenmore Highlands (GMH-A) and 10% by Camphor Ventures (CFV-V).

The partners have received one valuation to date, but “concern about the subjective nature of the evaluations” has them waiting for additional appraisals before releasing carat values for the stones.

The 104-tonne, mini-bulk sample yielded approximately 4,000 diamonds weighing 257 carats, including: three diamonds weighing more than 2 carats; eight diamonds weighing as much as or more than 1.5 carats; 43 diamonds weighing more than 0.5 carat; and 566 stones weighing more than 0.1 carat.

The largest stone recovered weighed 2.88 carats, and four of the eight largest diamonds are of gem quality. The indicated grade is 2.48 carats per tonne, with those diamonds greater than 2 mm grading 2.10 carat.

The grade of the diamonds, according to the partners, may be low owing to the procedure used to process 79 tonnes of the bulk sample. Because a final crush was not conducted on this portion, many diamonds ranging in size from 1 to 3 mm were not recovered from larger kimberlite chips. The first 25 tonnes, which did undergo a final crush, yielded 3.09 carats per tonne.

The 5034 kimberlite has been described as an irregular, kidney-shaped, multi-facie structure. It is estimated to contain a resource of at least 20 million tonnes to a depth of 350 metres.

A more intensive exploration program is planned to begin on the properties in February with the aim of identifying another pipe.

In the fall, an exploratory drilling program tested, in the central part of the AK property, a prominent indicator mineral dispersion train. Four holes were drilled up-ice of the anomaly, and intersected, between 30 and 60 metres, up to seven narrow kimberlite dykes with a maximum thickness of 2.65 metres.

Caustic fusion analysis recovered several microdiamonds from a sample of one of the dykes.

An ongoing heavy mineral till sampling program zeroed in on five areas in the southern part of the property where numerous indicator mineral trains have been identified.

In addition, a program of geophysics is planned to better define and prioritize some 30 drill targets on the AK and CJ properties.