Stornoway Diamond is pleased to announce the discovery of kimberlite at its 100% owned Adamantin Project located approximately 100km south of the Renard Diamond Project and 25km west of the Route 167 Extension in north central Québec.
To date 11 distinct kimberlite bodies have been identified, with intersections of up to 13.7 meters of undiluted kimberlite, and are interpreted to represent a new center of kimberlite emplacement located proximal to, but distinct from, the Renard kimberlite cluster.
Till sampling at Adamantin during 2015 confirmed the presence of indicator mineral anomalies interpreted to be sourced from undiscovered kimberlites with diamond potential, with one till sample containing a diamond from the +0.25mm-0.50mm size fraction.
Drilling commenced on March 20, 2016, with a light weight, helicopter portable, reverse circulation ("RC") drill rig designed to test multiple geophysical targets within a broad indicator mineral anomaly.
As of the suspension of drilling on May 01, kimberlite had been intersected in 18 of 78 drill holes (including 7 lost holes) testing 72 geophysical targets. These intersections are interpreted to represent at least 11 discrete kimberlite bodies. Additional high priority targets under lakes could not be tested due to deteriorating ice conditions.
Matt Manson, President and CEO, commented, "We are encouraged by the early drilling at Adamantin which has discovered a spatially extensive field of kimberlite emplacement in an area that we knew to have promising indicator mineral chemistry and where we had already found a diamond in till.
"To our knowledge, this is the first new field of kimberlites discovered in Québec in more than 10 years. Our drilling was curtailed by melting ice conditions before we were able to test all of our best targets, and we believe additional kimberlites remain to be discovered. Sufficient samples have been recovered from each body to arrive at a preliminary sense of diamond content, which will now be our immediate priority.
:Additional drilling will be required to test the full areal extent of the kimberlite field, and to test for larger kimberlite pipes or blows beneath the lakes, as well as the size potential of the bodies that have already been discovered."
The Adamantin Project now comprises 15,139 hectares of claims following recent additional acquisitions. In total, 72 targets identified from airborne geophysical data were tested with two RC rigs drilling shallow holes.
RC drilling produces small chips of rock that are brought to surface by air pressure, and is well suited for the rapid and economical testing of multiple targets involving frequent re-positioning.
However, geological contacts are not as sharply defined as by traditional core drilling, the RC chips themselves vary in size and quality, and the diamond content of the chips can be influenced by under-recovery and breakage factors.
Of the 18 kimberlite intersections identified from drilling, 14 returned intersections of undiluted (100%) hypabyssal kimberlite chips between 1.5m and 13.7m in length (Table 1). Intersections of mixed chips of kimberlite and country rock were also returned up to 22.9m in length.
The mixing of kimberlite and country rock chips over these intervals by this drilling method could represent the discovery of multiple, layered kimberlite bodies, and/or the inclusion of country rock xenoliths and wall rock material within a discrete kimberlite body, and/or the presence of breccia haloes and alteration zones proximal to larger bodies as is seen at the Renard Project, and/or dilution caused by the RC lifting process.
Of note, drilling at adjacent geophysical anomalies AD-50, 51 and 52 suggests the presence of a single, shallowly dipping (5-10 degrees), tabular body with an apparent true thickness of approximately 10 meters. This body lies 6-12m below surface, extends over a minimum NW-SE strike extent of 260 meters and is open in all directions.
Approximately 870kg of kimberlite chips were recovered from the AD-50/51/52 body, with samples varying from 20kg to 300kg in size collected from the other 10 discoveries. These will now be sent for diamond recovery to give a preliminary indication of the diamond content of each body.
Stornoway is a leading Canadian diamond exploration and development company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol SWY and headquartered in Montreal.
Our flagship asset is the 100% owned Renard Diamond Project, on track to becoming Québec’s first diamond mine. Stornoway is a growth oriented company with a world-class asset, in one of the world’s best mining jurisdictions, in one of the world’s great mining businesses.