News that the Canadian exploration division of
John Kaiser, publisher of the Kaiser Bottom-Fishing Report, picked-up on what could be the spark of a new diamond area play after the Nunavut Mining Recorder released a list of new issued permits on Feb. 1.
Kaiser was able to pinpoint the location of De Beers’ newly acquired ground, just south of the base of Brodeur Peninsula. He also noted that John Robins’ staking partners have acquired about 4,000 sq. km of permits on Melville Peninsula, on the mainland. Robins’ Hunter Exploration Group coincidentally optioned a 70% interest in a 4,000-sq.-km land package, called Aviat, to
Michael Hine, manager of mineral development in Nunavut, says it is common knowledge that De Beers has been conducting a fairly large regional program on Baffin Island for the past several summers.
Twin Mining has focused its exploration efforts on a kimberlite body, dubbed the Freightrain, discovered in the early 1970s on the Brodeur Peninsula of northern Baffin Island. Freightrain was previously thought to be barren, but Twin has succeeded in recovering large gem-quality diamonds from initial surface sampling.
An 18.41-tonne mini-bulk sample in spring 2001 yielded a parcel of 86 stones exceeding 1 mm and weighing 3.644 carats, for an implied grade of 0.198 carat per tonne. The largest stone weighed 1 carat and measured 6.98 by 5.64 by 3.6 mm.
Freightrain is a complex beast. It outcrops as a series of 16 weathered kimberlite fragment showings interspersed with predominant limestone fragments on frost boil surfaces within a 500-metre diameter area. Last summer’s delineation drilling program was marred by a poor drilling performance that was unable to penetrate to depth and properly define the body. Of the 17 holes drilled for a total of 1,108 metres, 15 holes intersected a total of just 314 metres of kimberlite, with 14 of the holes ending in limestone. The deepest hole reached a down-hole depth of 206 metres.
The first batch of microdiamond results was recently released from one of the best holes of the program. Hole 4 was drilled to a depth of 141 metres. It tested the highest airborne magnetic peak, which occurs roughly in the centre of a broader-based, 500-metre-wide anomaly. The hole encountered various degrees of olivine megacrystic kimberlite, with varying amounts of inclusions and nodules, interspersed with limestone blocks ranging from 2.1 to 30.5 metres thick. The limestone accounted for 71.9 metres of the hole.
Samples of drill core weighing 234 kg yielded 64 micros and 10 macros. (A macro is defined here as exceeding 0.5 mm in at least one dimension.) Seven of the larger stones were recovered from a 0.425-to-0.85-mm square mesh sieve size; one stone was recovered from a 0.85-to-1.18-mm square mesh screen, and two stones exceeded a 1.18-mm sieve size.
The two largest recovered stones measured 2.05 by 1.43 by 0.21 mm and 2.08 by 1.43 by 0.94 mm.
Microdiamond results from the 14 other Freightrain holes remain pending, along with results from two holes drilled into the Cargo 1 kimberlite pipe discovery, which lies 4.2 km northeast of Freightrain. Macrodiamond results are also pending for some 228 tonnes of kimberlite collected from six surface sites on the Freightrain kimberlite.
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