Pele, De Beers recover Genesis diamonds (March 29, 2004)

De Beers has recovered a 0.9-carat diamond from a bulk sample taken at the Festival property, north of Wawa, Ont. The project is a joint venture with Toronto-based diamond explorer Pele Mountain Resources (GEM-V).

The diamond was detected in a bulk sample taken at the property’s Genesis zone.

Pele says the ultramafic facies from which the diamond was recovered is similar to the facies from which a 0.72-carat, white, gem-quality diamond was recovered in March 2003. That diamond was found on the same property in an occurrence known as Cristal.

In its latest sampling program at Festival, in late 2003, De Beers collected four bulk samples weighing a total of 258 tonnes and processed them at its sorting facilities in Grande Prairie, Sask. Two of the bulk samples represent ultramafic facies from different locations at Genesis, and the other two represent a mafic facies from the Genesis and Moet diamond occurrences.

From these samples, 875 kg of diamond concentrate were produced and then shipped to South Africa for final diamond extraction and reporting of results. Each of the four bulk samples returned commercial-size diamonds greater than 1 mm square-mesh sieve size.

Pele notes that 44% of all diamonds reported from the bulk samples were not recovered by X-ray sorting.