Kennecott eyes Afridi Lake

Kennecott Canada Exploration has intersected kimberlite in the first target to be tested on the Afridi Lake property in the Northwest Territories.

The Rio Tinto (RTP-N) subsidiary can earn a 60% interest in the 52,591-ha project from Intertech Minerals (IML-V) either by spending $25 million on exploration or developing a mine. Afridi Lake is 80 km southeast of the Ekati diamond mine.

The Jordan discovery was made while drill-testing a geophysical magnetic low anomaly in the extreme northwestern corner of the property. The anomaly occurs at an apparent break in a northwesterly trending diabase dyke.

Drilled at an angle of minus 55, the hole pushed through 16.7 metres of water and overburden, intersecting 34.2 metres of volcaniclastic kimberlite.

At a down-hole depth of 50.9 metres, the hole encountered 11.6 metres of biotite schist before cutting 14.6 metres of hypabyssal kimberlite and ending in diabase rock.

Samples of the kimberlite will be sent to Kennecott’s laboratory in Thunder Bay, Ont., for microdiamond and petrographic analysis.

The Jordan kimberlite occurs 4.5 km due west of a series of closely spaced, steeply dipping, narrow dyke-like bodies that were discovered in early 1996.

Microdiamond analysis of 711.9 kg of kimberlite material yielded seven macrodiamonds (measuring more than 0.5 mm in one dimension) and 59 micros.

The largest recovered stone was a dodecahedral fragment measuring 1.12 by 0.83 by 0.24 mm.

Kennecott Canada Exploration plans to spend $1.2 million exploring the Afridi Lake property in 1999.

A high-resolution airborne magnetic and electromagnetic geophysical survey has outlined 30 potential kimberlite targets. Kennecott is conducting ground geophysics in preparation for drilling. About $500,000 has been allocated for drilling.

In addition, till sampling will attempt to provide a better understanding of the complex glacial history of the area.

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