Band-Ore ties up discovery

Three northern Ontario prospectors have dealt a new diamond discovery east of Wawa, Ont., to Band-Ore Resources (BAN-T), and work on the property is scheduled to start shortly.

Band-Ore is issuing 1.5 million shares to the prospectors — Terence Nicholson, Michael Tremblay and Jacques Robert — to acquire the private company they formed to hold the property. A further 500,000 shares and a total of $1.2 million in cash are payable over the next three years, and the group retains a 5% royalty on net sales.

Nicholson is known for his earlier discovery of a lamprophyre dyke near Michipicoten Harbour, just west of Wawa.

Two bulk samples taken by the prospecting syndicate showed that the property hosts a diamondiferous kimberlite, exposed by a newly built logging road. A 63-kg sample analyzed by caustic fusion and diamond recovery returned 10 macrodiamonds (conventionally defined as diamonds 0.5 mm or more in their long dimension) and 35 microdiamonds. A 71-kg sample returned nine microdiamonds. Band-Ore’s own confirmation sampling found 98 microdiamonds in a 55-kg rock mass sent to a different analytical laboratory. The company reported the diamonds were white and clear.

The property is a short distance east of Highway 17 in Musquash Twp., about 15 km north of Wawa. It is on Algoma Central Railway lands, not on Crown lands, and consequently is not subject to Lands for Life restrictions.

Band-Ore plans an immediate airborne magnetic survey of the area. Current Ontario government mag data are available on 200-metre flight lines, but the company plans to fly the area on a 50-metre line spacing to provide high-resolution maps. Existing magnetic maps show 12 circular magnetic anomalies, which Band-Ore has picked out as the initial target areas.

Band-Ore will be following up with geological mapping and outcrop sampling, and with indicator-mineral surveys.

The other explorer in the area is Kennecott Canada, the diamond exploration unit of Rio Tinto (RTP-N), which is earning a 60% interest in a 2,000-sq.-km land package held by Canabrava Diamond (CNB-V) and Paramount Ventures & Finance (PVF-V).

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