With the Star diamond project in Saskatchewan taking centre-stage,
The three gold properties are in the La Ronge belt in north-central Saskatchewan and include the Jasper mine, a former producer, on the Fork Lake property, a 25% interest in the Jojay property, and a 51% operating stake in the Munro Lake joint venture. The company transferred its interests for 12 million newly issued Wescan shares.
A portion of Shore’s holdings in Wescan will be handed over to shareholders by way of a dividend-in-kind. Up to 5.5 million Wescan shares will be distributed on the basis of one Wescan share for every 10 shares of Shore held. The listing of Wescan is conditional on the closing of an initial public offering (IPO), expected in late September. The IPO consists of 14 million shares priced at 10 per share, offered on a best-efforts basis by Wellington West Capital. Upon completion of the IPO, Wescan will emerge with $1.2 million in its treasury and 26 million shares outstanding.
In the meantime, Shore continues to focus on the Star project, where it has sunk a shaft down the throat of the eruptive body to a targeted depth of 250 metres below surface in order to collect a kimberlite bulk sample of at least 25,000 tonnes. The program is designed to recover at least 3,000 carats of diamonds for valuation.
The underground bulk sampling is well-advanced, with more than 20,500 tonnes of kimberlite mined to date. About 7,500 tonnes of sample were extracted during the sinking of the shaft. The remainder has been mined from drifting on the 235-metre level in what is defined as the Early Joli Fou equivalent kimberlite. Shore has drifted laterally out in northeasterly and southwesterly directions at the 235-metre level. The lateral development at this level is constrained by the kimberlite-country rock boundary, which is perhaps more than 100 metres out.
Shore has not yet started drifting on the 175-metre level as originally planned, and George Sanders, vice-president of corporate development, says they may not get there. There are currently three active headings on the 235-metre level, with 14 or 15 different faces. “At the pace we’re going, we could be done [mining] at the end of the month,” says Sanders.
The Star kimberlite occurs at the southern end of the main Fort la Corne trend, 60 km east of Prince Albert. The Fort la Corne field, in the province’s east-central region, comprises at least 70 known kimberlite bodies, ranging from 2.7 to 250 hectares in surface area and individually containing anywhere from 3 to 675 million tonnes in mass. Shore owns all of the 96-sq.-km project, which ties on to the southern boundary of the FalC joint-venture area shared by
The Star kimberlite body is an eruptive complex with at least four phases of kimberlite and two or more possible feeder vents. It is masked by 100 metres of glacial cover. The shaft has cut through two main eruptive phases that are interpreted to be equivalent with stratigraphically defined horizons in the Saskatchewan sedimentary basin, namely the Early and Late Joli Fou formations of the Lower Colorado Group. The Upper part of the shaft, from 107 to 171 metres, is in the Late Joli Fou stratigraphic-equivalent kimberlite phase. The lower part of the shaft, from 190 to 250 metres, is in the equivalent of the Early Joli Fou. Based on the partial results to date, there is a distinct grade difference between the Early and Late Joli Fou equivalent kimberlite, with better grades evident in the lower kimberlite or Early Joli Fou phase.
Kimberlite material collected during the current underground campaign is being processed in batches. The on-site processing plant consists of a 30-tonne-per-hour crushing circuit and a 10-tonne-per-hour dense-media-separation (DMS) plant, including a 250-mm separating cyclone and diamond recovery circuit that utilizes an X-ray diamond sorting machine and a grease table. Plant concentrates are transported to SGS Lakefield Research for final diamond recovery.
Diamond recoveries to date total 1,126 carats exceeding a 0.85-mm square mesh screen from the treatment of 10,925 tonnes of kimberlite, for an overall diamond content of 10.31 carats per 100 tonnes (or 0.1 carat per tonne). More than 98% of the parcel’s carat weight consists of 9,496 diamonds of commercial-size greater than 1.18-mm square mesh. Batch samples of the Early Joli Fou kimberlite alone have delivered 932 carats from the processing of 6,371 tonnes, for an implied diamond content of 14.63 carats per 100 tonnes.
Shore has recovered a significant number of large-size stones, the biggest being a 19.7-carat, white-coloured diamond recovered from a southeastern drift on the 235-metre level. The next six largest diamonds recovered to date weigh in at 8.12 (white), 7.85 (off-white), 7.48 (white), 6.54 (white), 6.41 (white) and 5.61 (off-white) carats apiece. “The abundance of large quality stones in the Star diamond population will have a highly positive affect on the economics of the Star kimberlite,” predicts George Read, senior vice-president of exploration.
In total, 51 of the recovered diamonds exceed two carats, and 129 diamonds are greater than 1 carat. Of these, 89 are described as white in colour, 21 are off-white, 11 are brown, four are yellow, one is amber, and three are grey. A total of 317 stones weigh more than half a carat. More than 80% of the total diamond parcel is classified as white in colour, with a good proportion of the remainder described as off-white. A small number of coloured stones have been recovered, including pinks, yellows, ambers and greens.
“We seem to have a high proportion of good-looking stones and appear to have pretty robust coarse-size distribution, and that’s catching a lot of attention from some of the people in the diamond business who understand the diamond game quite well,” says Sanders. “We have some nice-looking stones, so we are pretty happy with the results we’re getting to date.”
Shore is waiting on results from another seven sample batches from the 235-metre level. These have been processed and shipped to the sorting laboratory.
Be the first to comment on "Shore announces dividend-in-kind"