UP WITH AATTA!

MEND, OMEP, CORE, MDA, OMA, MABC, MNDM, GAC, MAC, FLIP, SLIP, BLIP, HIP. Enough! Enough! No more acronyms. Or if there must be acronyms, outlaw tongue-twisters like MNDM or MABC. MEND slips easily off the tongue. And so does another that I only recently uncovered — KLIP (Kirkland Lake Initiatives Program). KLIP has one other virtue — it was a government program that delivered the goods.

In May, 1978, the Ontario Geological Survey launched the innovative four-year KLIP. KLIP funded a series of projects to study the chemical and mineral content of glacial till in 29 townships near Kirkland Lake, Ont. From the perspective of diamond exploration in northern Ontario, glacial activity at once obscured potential diamond orebodies (the kimberlite pipes) and yet left an enticing trail to the source for those who can follow the scent. And that was what KLIP was all about.

For diamonds, the key indicator minerals are chrome diopside and pyrope — diamond’s fellow travellers, or “sputniki,” as they’re called. (You see, I’m an instant expert in diamonds too.) The KLIP till yielded both chrome diopside and pyrope, in fairly heavy concentrations in some instances. But finding chrome diopside and pyrope in glacial till is one thing. It’s quite another to locate the actual source, the kimberlite pipes.

Fortunately, the KLIP program had included aeromagnetic surveys covering the 29 townships. KLIP’s aeromagnetics did indeed turn up “signatures” that eventually were identified as kimberlite anomalies.

And that brought in majors, such as Falconbridge and LAC Minerals. In the mid-1980s, LAC turned its attention to the potential for economic diamond deposits around Kirkland Lake. Notes a technical paper recently co-authored by J.J. Brummer, D.A. MacFadyen and LAC geologist Chris Pegg: “Fortunately, these townships were part of the Kirkland Lake Initiatives Program area and had been covered by airborne surveys… the results of which were available from the Ontario Geological Survey.”

Based on the aeromagnetic maps and exploration conducted by two other companies, LAC spent about $2 million probing the kimberlite pipes by drilling into the structures. LAC discovered that one pipe in particular, known as the C14, yielded diamonds, about eight of them. They were smallish, but a few were of gem-quality.

In spite of this, LAC later sold off the properties — a result of its strategic decision to focus on gold and base metals, not necessarily its determination that the OGS-discovered pipes were uneconomic. In fact, Pegg says that larger samples will have to be taken before anyone can write off the Kirkland Lake pipes as currently uneconomic.

And that, of course, is what is happening today. Several small junior exploration outfits have acquired ground covering the KLIP anomalies and, as I write, bulk samples are being extracted. Only time will tell whether the OGS’s KLIP program will yield the ultimate prize. In the meanwhile, the hunt for Kirkland Lake diamonds is bringing a little excitement and more than a little prosperity to an area of the country that can use it — thanks to an effective government program that goes by a rather pleasing acronym, KLIP.