Kimberlites found on Dumont Nickel’s property near Victor mine

Eight of nine drill holes have intersected the margins or upper levels of buried kimberlite intrusive complexes on Dumont Nickel‘s (DNI-V) Attawapiskat diamond property, the company has confirmed.

The findings stem from new analytical results Metalex Ventures (MTX-V, MLXVF-O) obtained from recent work on prior drill core from claims about 7 km south of the Victor diamond mine in Ontario’s Attawapiskat region. Metalex has concluded that the results “indicate that a new group of previously unconfirmed kimberlites have been discovered in the area.”

Dumont’s 36 sq km land position in the Attawapiskat region of the James Bay Lowlands is under option to Kel-Ex Development, a private company controlled by Charles Fipke, who discovered the world-class Ekati diamond mine in Canada.

Kel-Ex, at no cost to Dumont, is exploring the Dumont property under separate joint-venture arrangements with Metalex Ventures, Arctic Star Diamond Corp. (ADD-V) and Big Red Diamond Corp. (DIA-V).

Under the arrangement Dumont retains a 10% carried interest to production and a 5% interest in certain surrounding areas if acquired by Kel-Ex.

According to Dumont’s website, Kel Ex has spent at least $1.67 million on exploration work on Dumont’s claims, well in advance of its contractual schedule and has earned an initial 50% interest in the claims pursuant to its 2003 agreement with Dumont.

Dumont’s claims are in the same structural corridor that hosts the De Beers kimberlites. De Beers’  Victor mine, which went into production in 2008, has the capacity to produce 600,000 carats per year. The Victor kimberlite has a surface area of 15 hectares and consists of two pipes that coalesce at the surface, the Victor Main and the Victor Southwest. The open pit mine is expected to have a lifespan of 12 years.

Currently Metalex is re-assessing other drill holes from the area that intersected similar material and an additional thirteen possible kimberlite intersections from thirteen drill holes have been selected to test for kimberlite indicator minerals and diamonds.

The Attawapiskat region is in the James Bay Lowlands, an area where the deformed rocks of the Archean craton are covered by flat lying Paleozoic limestone. There are several ages of kimberlite in the region: Attawapiskat kimberlites (Jurassic age) penetrate the limestone and the Kyle kimberlites (Proterozoic) do not and are under cover.

At presstime Dumont Nickle was trading at 3¢ per share, up 20% on the day.

The Toronto junior has a 52-week trading range of half a cent to 8¢ per share and has 155 million shares outstanding.