By KATHERINE DONATO For Northern Ontario Business
A glittering discovery in Wawa may start diamond hunters searching in
places they had not thought to look before.
In the early 1990s prospector Mickey Clement went to the Ontario
Geological Survey (OGS) with ball-bearing sized rocks
that he thought to be industrial-grade diamonds which he had found in
the Wawa area.
Clement began his search from a 1933 news story in the Fort William
Daily Times reporting diamonds in the area. Ann
Wilson, district geologist with the OGS, says sometimes it pays to
follow up on old geological reports because some early
diamond finds may have been incorrectly dismissed as quartz.
A scientific check of the rocks at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto
proved the man?s theory right. Two exploration firms
came into the area as a result of this find. All diamonds found in the
area have been industrial-grade, used for drill bits and
saws, not for jewellery.
?There?s gem-quality diamonds in the North West Territories (Ekati site)
but not here,? Wilson says.
That?s not to say there will never be gem-quality diamonds. ?We?re sort
of laying the background for further discoveries,? she
says.
Canabrava Diamond Corp., a British Columbia-based company, followed up
on the alluvial diamonds found by Clement and
targeted kimberlite, a rock where diamonds are typically found. The
company has culled 1,200 samples over two seasons on
its 82,000-hectare claim.
?We?ve done a reconnaissance program,? says Roy Moore, president of
Canabrava. ?Now we?re focusing on specific
(kimberlite) targets.?
Kimberlite is not commonly associated with the Wawa area, according to
Wilson. Canabrava has come up with two true
kimberlites and is now in the process of testing them to find out if
they contain diamonds.
Moore says he cannot predict if the discovery will lead to a producing
mine, but with $2 million invested in the venture, he
certainly hopes it will.
Canabrava has also been investigating the land between Wawa and
Kapuskasing and in the Chapleau area.
About 40 kilometres away from the Canabrava site, Montreal-based Spider
Resources-KWG Resources found diamonds.
This company focused on diamonds found embedded in bedrock.
?The rock is unusual,? Wilson says. ?It?s not a true kimberlite ? kind
of a cousin.?
Diamonds had never been found in this type of rock in Ontario before.
That gets geologists thinking ?maybe we should look in
this kind of rock,? she says.
Diamonds have also been found in the Kirkland Lake area and the James
Bay Lowlands.
?Pretty much all of the Canadian Shield is open as far as diamond
exploration? is concerned, Wilson adds. Exploration
?could?ve been going on without anyone knowing.?
Prospectors keep their diamond exploration activities pretty secretive,
she explains. People can make millions if they option a
claim to an exploration company.
The exploration work going on at the two sites may seem like an answer
to a prayer for Wawa, which recently lost a major
employer and nearly 200 jobs when Algoma Ore Division closed in June.
Wilson is quick to point out that ?these are discoveries only, none of
which are proven to be mineable at all? at this time. The
diamond industry is in ?a grass roots exploration stage? in the area
right now, but diamond exploration is only going to increase
in Ontario, although it could be years before the area is ready to mine,
if it comes to that stage, she says.
The Ekati diamond mine, opened last month 300 kilometres north of
Yellowknife in the Barrenlands of the North West
Territories, went from the exploration stage to the mining stage in a
short time, according to Wilson, who notes that BHP
Diamonds, a division of Broken Hill Proprietary of Australia, was still
doing exploration at the site in 1993.
?They (prospectors) found kimberlite right off (in 1989),? which is
unusual, and, as a result, knew where to look for diamonds.
?Diamond exploration in the Wawa area is in its infancy compared to the
North West Territories (Ekati mine),? she says.
have a good day and enjoy the clown act!!!! |
