Sudbury Contact, JML hunt in Timiskaming

Ongoing geophysical surveys mark the return of Sudbury Contact Mines (SUD-T) to its Timiskaming diamond exploration project, an effort it suspended in 1996.

Sudbury Contact is doing about 4,500 km of high-resolution airborne magnetic surveys over its claims in the area near New Liskeard, Ont. Late in 2001, the company flew a similar survey over claims just across the provincial boundary in Quebec, which produced eight drill targets for the coming field season.

Between 1991 and 1996, the company found four kimberlite bodies on its properties, two of which proved to carry diamonds. One, Pipe 95-2, returned 21 macrodiamonds (exceeding 0.5 mm in length) and 35 microdiamonds from a sample of slightly more than 1 tonne. The largest of the stones was 0.14 carat in weight and was clear and colourless.

Sudbury Contact has sent some stored material from the holes drilled on 95-2 to C.F. Minerals in Kelowna, B.C., for further testing.

Till sampling in the area returned more kimberlite indicator minerals and prodded the company to stake a further 36 claims, bringing the total land package to 107 sq. km on the Ontario side and about 56 sq. km on the Quebec side. The claims straddle the Lake Timiskaming Structural Zone, a known corridor of kimberlite intrusions.

Meanwhile, in the Marten River area to the south, two till samples taken by JML Resources (JJJ-V) have returned eclogitic garnets, a typical diamond indicator mineral. Electron microprobe analysis showed their chemical composition was typical of garnets that formed at pressures and temperatures where diamonds are stable, implying that the garnets formed in the earth’s upper mantle (normally more than 30 km deep).

JML had earlier isolated grains of pyrope garnet, chromite, chrome diopside, olivine and ilmenite, all of which are typically found in kimberlite intrusions.

Early in May, JML acquired further claims in the area to bring its total land position to about 400 sq. km, covering parts of 25 townships in the area north of North Bay. The company has started field work and expects to have some drill targets this season.