Kennady Diamonds Inc. Aug. 26 reported that more than 70 meters of kimberlite has been intersected in step-out drilling on strike to the northwest of the main Kelvin kimberlite at the company’s Kennady North project, which covers 12,356 hectares (30,532 acres) immediately northwest of the leases controlled by the Gahcho Kué Joint Venture between De Beers Canada (51 percent) and Mountain Province (49 percent) in Northwest Territories.
Delineation drilling, which is taking place some 100 meters from Kelvin Lake and more than 300 meters from the main Kelvin kimberlite, is increasing confidence in the tonnage potential of the Kelvin kimberlite.
A 5,000-meter drill program conducted during the winter of 2013 returned an exceptional sample grade of 8.44 carats per metric ton. The largest three diamonds recovered were a 2.48-carat off-white transparent octahedral, a 0.90-carat off-white transparent irregular, and a 0.75 carat off-white transparent octahedral. Kennady said the recovery of diamonds of this size and quality from a 1.1-metric-ton sample is very encouraging.
The company aims to identify a resource along the Kelvin – Faraday kimberlite corridor of between 5 and 8 million metric tons, and also to identify new kimberlites outside of the corridor. This tonnage estimate is based on the drilling completed to date.
The potential quantity is conceptual in nature as there has been insufficient drilling to define a mineral resource, and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral resource.
Kennady Diamonds CEO Patrick Evans said, “We are particularly encouraged that the step-out drilling continues to intersect kimberlite more than 300 meters to the north-west of the main Kelvin kimberlite. This is the farthest to the north-west that kimberlite has been intersected and the kimberlite body continues to demonstrate substantial widths. Delineation drilling to determine the limits of the kimberlite emplacement is continuing.”
Kennady Diamonds also reported that more than three metric tons of kimberlite has been recovered to date from about 3,000 meters of drilling, which is well in excess of the targets set for the program. This reflects the very high success rate of the current drill program. At the conclusion of the drill program within the next two weeks, the recovered kimberlite will be dispatched to the lab for recovery of diamonds by caustic fusion.
“We expect to release diamond recovery results early in the fourth quarter. The additional data will facilitate progress towards the first resource statement for the Kennady North project and also add significantly to our diamond data base,” Evans expounded.
