Monopros, a wholly owned Canadian subsidiary of De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBRS-Q), has collected 50-tonne drill samples from each of the Hearne, Tesla, Tuzo and 5034 pipes in the Northwest Territories. The results will be used for grade estimates.
Initially, the mini-bulk samples will be treated in Monopros’s densemedia separation plant in Grand Prairie, Alta. The produced concentrates will then be shipped to South Africa for diamond recovery and evaluation. A decision to proceed with an underground bulk-sampling program will be based on the results of the 50-tonne test sample.
Monopros can earn up to a 60% interest in the AK-CJ properties, which are held 90% by Mountain Province Mining (MPV-V) and 10% by Camphor Ventures (CFV-V). The property blocks are about 100 km southeast of Lac de Gras.
Drilling of lake-based targets will continue as long as ice conditions remain favorable, whereas prospective land-based targets will be drilled in the summer. One of the exploration holes drilled this winter is reported to have intersected a 50-metre-thick interval of kimberlite, roughly 100 metres northeast of the northern limits of the 5034 pipe. This possible extension of 5034 is underground and will be further tested this summer.
The 5034 pipe had been estimated to contain 20 million tonnes to a depth of 350 metres. De Beers has revised that estimate to 15 million tonnes. A preliminary grade was previously calculated at 2.4 carats per tonne, based on a 250-carat parcel of stones that was recovered from a 104-tonne mini-bulk sample.
An initial valuation by De Beers on only those diamonds exceeding a commercial cutoff screen size of 1.65 mm averaged US$55 per carat. The grade of those stones is 1.5 carats per tonne, giving a preliminary value of US$82.50 per tonne.
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