Renard 2 yields more diamonds

Vancouver – A 2.44-tonne sample collected from the Renard 2 kimberlite pipe in the Otish Mountains region of Quebec has returned an encouraging 69.3 carats per 100 tonnes of material for equal partners Ashton Mining of Canada (ACA-T) and Soquem.

Lying on the 1,536-sq.-km Foxtrot property, Renard 2 was discovered in late 2001 by drilling a 150-by-100 metre geophysical anomaly. In March, the partners collected the mini-bulk sample from four drill holes, which yielded a total of 1.69 carats of diamonds larger than 0.8 mm. The five largest diamonds range in size from 0.10-to-0.16 carats and include both single and composite crystals. Two of the stones are colorless; the others are pale yellow or pale brown. These results give the sample an estimated diamond content of 69.3 carats per hundred tonnes.

Last fall, Ashton and Soquem, a Quebec Crown corporation, discovered two kimberlitic bodies during a first pass of drilling designed to test four high-priority magnetic geophysical targets.

The first body, known as Renard 1, yielded 54 microdiamonds and five macrodiamonds from 205.8 kg of sampled core. (A macrodiamond is defined here as exceeding 0.5 mm in at least one dimension.) Renard 1 consists primarily of hypabyssal material, with brecciated material occurring near the bottom of the hole.

While the microdiamond results from Renard 1 were considered positive, preliminary test results of Renard 2, which was found beneath 18 metres of overburden 1 km south of Renard 1, showed much more promise. In total, 116 micros and 29 macros were recovered from 163.1 kg of core samples, including five stones greater than 0.5 mm in two dimensions. Based on the first two core holes, Renard 2 was interpreted to be a complex body that shows evidence of multiple intrusive phases. Ashton’s vice-president of exploration, Brooke Clements, describes Renard 2 as a xenolith-rich autolithic breccia, with local variations of xenolith and olivine macrocrysts.

Ashton and Soquem are 50-50 partners in a joint venture that currently holds more than 3,800 sq. km of mineral permits in north-central Quebec. The permits are broadly held in two areas: the Otish Mountains region, 275 km northeast of Chibougamou, and the Caniapiscau area, 500 km east-northeast of Radisson.