More colored diamonds for Mori in Ontario

In what is believed to be the first time rare colored diamonds have been found in such great numbers in Ontario, more than half of the 5,216 diamonds recovered at the Mori joint-venture property near Wawa Ontario are stones of color, partners Metalex Ventures (MTX-V) and Dianor Resources (DOR-V, RSDNF-O) say.

Of the colored gems, 26.8% were brown, 14% grey, 5.5% yellow, 5.1% green, 0.8% orange, 0.1% purple, 0.1% amber and 0.1% black. A pink diamond was also found.

“I think it’s the first time in Ontario that you have the full suite of diamond colorsand all from drill core,” John Ryder, Dianor’s president says. “It’s a new geological model.”

Rare fancy colored diamonds are quite rare and expensive, with orange and purple amongst the most unusual and coveted, the companies say.

The colored stones at Mori range in size from 0.075 to 1.32 mm and were present on all screen sieve sizes from 75-850 microns.

All of the ten largest diamonds recovered were colored: 8 were brown, 1 was yellow and 1 was grey. They were all of commercial size, or greater than 0.85 mm, and ranged in weight from 1.0583 milligrams to 2.6327 milligrams.

The diamonds, 52.4% of them colored, were recovered from 13 drill holes. They were found in conglomeratessand and gravel that have been compacted into hard rock.

Mori is near Dianor’s Leadbetter diamond property. Leadbetter is Dianor’s most advanced property and contains diamonds, gold, sapphires and rubies.

Mori’s 3-km-long diamond bearing conglomerate band on the property’s east block lies on the east side of the Mildred Lake fault and is the faulted eastern continuation of the main diamond-bearing Leadbetter conglomerate that lies 3.5 km to the south.

In addition, the diamonds were recovered close to the source rock, Ryder explains. “They haven’t traveled any great distance from the diamond-bearing rock,” he says. “That’s an advantage because you don’t have the winnowing out [and] if they weren’t eroded they should be around somewhere.”

Exposures of the conglomerate attain thicknesses on surface of up to 180 metres and dips steeply to the north-northwest.

Drill results so far demonstrate that the true thickness of the diamond-bearing conglomerate ranges from 87.6 to 121 metres.

According to Kelowna-based Metalex, the main host rocks at Mori are conglomerates of the Archean period which, at 2.7 billion years of age, are “unique and amongst the oldest diamond bearing occurrences in the world.”

“There are no other Archean rocks in the world with this distribution of colored diamonds,” says Ryder. “This makes the whole Leadbetter model very unique and different.”

Much of the shield area of Ontario is highly fractured, with large fractures and faults that have provided access ways for deep-level igneous rocks.

Metalex is trading on the TSX Venture Exchange at about 37 per share. The stock has a 52-week trading range of 18-55. The junior has 93.3 million shares outstanding.

Dianor stock is trading at about 28 apiece. It has a 52-week trading window of 24-82, with 152.8 million shares outstanding.

The share prices don’t reflect the significance of the Mori or Leadbetter properties, Ryder argues, adding that there is currently little interest in the diamond sector.

“We’re near a historical low with a fantastic discovery,” Ryder says with frustration in his voice. “People have been making a lot of money on gold and base metals and the diamond sector has been out of everyone’s view. We’re suffering 1) because the markets are very bad for the juniors right now and 2) diamonds are out of favour.”

In the meantime, he adds, everyone “is waiting for something major to happen, even though the fundamentals of supply and demand have gotten worse. US$900 million was spent last year on [diamond] exploration with no major discoveries.”