Winspear?s Snap Lake program begins
Winspear Resources Ltd WSP
Shares issued 39,238,388 Feb 11 close $1.93
Mon 14 Feb 2000 News Release
Mr. Randy Turner reports
Winspear Resources? Snap Lake advanced exploration program (AEP) has commenced on the Camsell Lake joint venture property. This property is located approximately 220 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife, NWT, and is controlled by the Camsell Lake joint venture in which Winspear is the majority owner and operator. Both Winspear and its joint venture partner have committed to financing their respective share of expenditures for the AEP.
Background
Results to date from 189 contiguous drill intersections on the Snap Lake deposit indicate that the NW dyke is a gently dipping single phase of macrocrystic hypabyssal kimberlite that is relatively uniform in thickness and diamond grade. MRDI Canada, a division of AGRA Simons (MRDI) has established a resource of 21.3 million tonnes of kimberlite. Included within this resource are 16.47 million tonnes contained in kimberlite that is greater than one metre thickness. Of this 16.47 million tonnes, MRDI determined that approximately 8.35 million tonnes are classified as an indicated resource with an estimated recoverable grade of 1.97 carats per tonne and an additional 8.12 million tonnes of kimberlite is classified as an inferred resource with an estimated recoverable grade of 2.07 carats per tonne. These tonnage and grade figures include estimates for internal dilution. In 1999, 10,708 carats of diamonds valued at $105 (U.S.) per carat were recovered from processing 5,986 tonnes of NW dyke kimberlite. Resource figures assume a strict 1.18 mm bottom cutoff for diamond recovery plus identical liberation and recovery to that obtained in the Lupin test plant through which the bulk sample material was processed.
Advanced exploration program
The AEP currently under way is designed to obtain all information required to support a bankable feasibility study for the Snap Lake project. Appropriate land use and quarrying permits as well as a Class B water licence have been obtained for the program. Plans are to mine approximately 20,000 tonnes of kimberlite by developing a 600-metre drive in kimberlite located 120 metres below Snap Lake. From this material, three widely spaced 2,000-tonne samples will be processed in a 10-tonne-per-hour DMS (dense media separation) plant that is being constructed on the property. To access the NW dyke below Snap Lake, a 1,200 metre long decline will be collared on the NW peninsula and driven out under Snap Lake to intersect that portion of the dyke along which mining will occur. This decline, measuring 4.5 metres high by 5.0 metres wide, will be sized for commercial production of the NW dyke.
Infrastructure to support this program includes a 900-metre airstrip, a containment area for processed kimberlite, a 75 bed Atco-type camp, appropriate water treatment and waste disposal facilities, and a storage tank farm for four million litres of fuel.
Exploration
A diamond drill program planned to commence in late February is designed to achieve two objectives:
1. to convert inferred resources to indicated resources in that area that can be accessed from the decline and where kimberlite exceeds two metres thickness;
2. to explore the down-dip portion of the dykes in the SE arm of Snap Lake to determine if additional kimberlite resources occur in this portion of the property. Previous drilling in the southeast arm of Snap Lake indicated that additional kimberlite dyke material, similar to the NW dyke and of potentially economic thickness, occurs in this area. Although these dykes appear to be gently dipping to the northwest, there has been no significant attempt to test these dykes down-dip and to establish their relation to the NW dyke. Presently, over a kilometre separates the nearest intersection on the NW dyke from drill intersections on the dykes in the SE arm. A total of 10,000 metres of diamond drilling is proposed to address these objectives.
Other exploration planned for the property includes a detailed airborne geophysical survey over a limited portion of the property. Additional till sampling in the summer period is also planned on the property to follow up areas of anomalous kimberlite indicator mineral results located in other areas of the Camsell Lake property removed from Snap Lake.
Other
At this time, MRDI is working on a prefeasibility study of the NW dyke. The purpose is to develop a detailed mine plan of the area and to examine alternatives for the sequence of development. In addition, detailed planning of required surface facilities is under way that will provide a closer estimate of capital cost requirements for the project. Results of this study are anticipated in the second quarter of this year. Collection and evaluation of environmental and geotechnical data from the project area is sufficiently well-advanced to support submission of an enviromental assessment report planned for early in the second quarter of this year. This will initiate the regulatory evaluation process for the project. At this advanced stage of evaluation, no areas of significant environmental concern are apparent. The planned project has a small footprint relative to other projects in the NWT. This is principally because planned mining of the NW dyke will mainly occur underground and requires no interference with Snap Lake or development of large waste-rock piles. To achieve the planned high extraction of the resource, the bulk of the tailings will be mixed with cement and pumped back underground to provide required support for pillar extraction.
Regular updates will be provided on progress of this program. Winspear is encouraged with developments to date on the property and looks forward to significant development on the evaluation of the Snap Lake project during this year.
The Camsell Lake property is the only property in which Winspear has an interest. Under the terms of a plan of arrangement that became effective May 27, 1999, Winspear transferred all its beneficial interest in other exploration properties into Diamondex Resources Ltd., which is now a publicly traded company on the CDNX.
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