Kensington and Cameco to resort Fort a la Corne tailings samples
Kensington Resources Ltd KRT
Shares issued 24,670,435 1999-09-09 close $0.33
Friday Sep 10 1999
Also Cameco Corporation (CCO)
Mr. David Stone reports
The 1999 Fort a la Corne joint venture technical meeting was held in Saskatoon, Sask., on Aug. 31, 1999. Joint venture partners Cameco Corporation, Monopros Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of De Beers, and Kensington Resources met to discuss the results of the current 1999 drilling program and to outline the plans for further work programs.
Monopros reported the recovery of 58 macrodiamonds (greater than one millimetre) from the 1999 winter drilling X-ray concentrate. This figure was around half the number expected, given previous results for the same kimberlites. As a number of stones were recovered from the 1997 X-ray tailings, all 1999 X-ray tailings were visually examined and a further 69 stones were found, thus increasing macrodiamond recovery by 119 per cent.
In its report to the partners, Monopros wrote:
"The most significant factor arising from the 1999 work was the unusually large number of diamonds recovered from the X-ray tailing material from the Sortex recovery plant. Monopros is taking steps to re-examine the entire 1997 Sortex tailings collection in light of the new results. In addition, investigations are under way to fully assess the treatment history of all pre-1999 macrodiamond recovery samples. "
In view of these encouraging results, the joint venture partners have agreed to visually resort all Sortex concentrate tailings from 1990, 1991 and 1997. Results will be made available in approximately three months time. The joint venture partners expect the new information will help determine with greater precision the kimberlite pipes with the best economic potential for any year 2000 drilling program. Macrodiamond tailing results will be released when available. Due to a South African government diamond export duty dispute, the transport of the second group of macrodiamonds for valuation was delayed. However, these diamonds have now been sent to Belgium for valuation.
This situation has caused the 1999 evaluation report to be delayed. The tracer report, which describes the efficiency of diamond recovery from this year's drilling program, is expected to be released by Monopros later this month.
It is Kensington's understanding and expectation that this program will benefit the Fort A la Corne diamond project by providing an improved database and may enhance the macrodiamond grades on all relevant kimberlite pipes. The delay in the announcement of the 1999 results will provide improved and more accurate data. This will help to clarify the economic potential of the Fort a la Corne project.
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