Forest Gate gains some traction in Fort la Corne

Forest Gate Resources (FGT-V) has found diamonds on its West Side property in the Fort la Corne area of Saskatchewan.

While the company doesn’t own enough of the kimberlite to consider mining it, the discovery increases its bargaining position should Shore Gold (SGF-T) develop an open pit on the 122 kimberlite pipe in question.

The hole was three inches in diameter and intersected 11.6 metres of kimberlite.

Forest Gates has a 100% interest on its property which sits just on the western edge of the 122 kimberlite. Shore Gold has a much larger stake on the kimberlite and throughout Fort la Corne through its joint venture with Newmont Mining (NMC-T, NEM-N).

So while the Forest Gate’s drill program consisted of only two holes the other hole only intersect 1.8 metres of kimberlite and wasn’t sampled it believes its land position is its strong suit.

“If Shore Gold does an open pit they would have to talk to us,” says Andre Laferrier, an exploration geologist for Forest Gate. “It’s not a big property but it’s very strategic in the area.”

In Toronto on Nov. 13, the Montreal-based company’s shares were up roughly 35%, or 5 to 22 on roughly 2.8 million shares traded.

Two macrodiamonds were included in the 27 recovered diamonds. Macrodiamonds are stones with two faces greater than 0.5 mm. Forest Gate says the largest measured 0.68 mm by 0.51 mm by 0.30 mm.

The size of the diamonds found breaks down as follows: 10 diamonds were found on the 0.105 mm sieve, another 10 on the 0.150 mm sieve, four on the 0.212 mm sieve, two on the 0.300 mm, and one on the 0.425 mm sieve.

The company says 25 of the 27 diamonds are high-value white diamonds.

The company describes the volcaniclastic kimberlite as “coarse grained” containing roughly 1% red garnets.

“We set out to find diamondiferous kimberlite on the West Side Property and we did,” Forest Gate’s vice president of exploration, Steve Roebuck, said in a prepared statement.