Hello Bruce
Sorry I missed your question about whether Jackson Inlet was previously held or looked at. The August 27, 2000 Northern Miner article covered the history of this play in considerable detail. I have quoted an excerpt below:
Cominco (CLT-T) and De Beers Consolidated Mines carried out programs in relative obscurity during the early 1970s, though it is known that upwards of 20 kimberlite bodies were found on Somerset Island. However, microdiamond counts were reported to be low, and the indicator mineral assemblage turned out to be unpromising. And unlike the Lac de Gras kimberlites, which are relatively young at 50-80 million years of age, the Somerset Island kimberlites are estimated to be 400-410 million years old.
Lumina Investments (now known as Latitude Minerals) optioned 15 claims on Brodeur Peninsula in the early 1990s and began exploring for diamonds. The junior was led by Robert Hunter and Allen Achilles, though Ian Mason, a former head of worldwide diamond exploration for Cominco, directed the work programs.
While carrying out a regional program in 1993, Lumina spotted one kimberlite -- or possibly two adjacent small pipes -- from the air in the area now known as the Freightrain kimberlite. It was staked as Zulu-1 and presumed to be the same kimberlite discovered by Cominco in 1975.
The kimberlite stood out as two small adjacent outcrops of fractured, dark (almost black) coloured material, elevated about 2 metres above the otherwise level terrain of sandy cover. It was identified in the field (later confirmed by petrography) by the presence of purple garnets, with well-developed kelyphitic rims, chrome diopsides and olivines.
Lumina took preliminary samples from each showing for indicator mineral probe analysis, which yielded a selection of peridotitic and eclogitic pyrope garnets, and chromites. A further 80 kg of kimberlite material were shipped out at the end of the 1993 season.
Robert Hunter, Lumina's former president, could not recall if microdiamonds were recovered from the 80-kg sample. However, Lumina dropped its option in 1996. "We never had enough dollars to go further with it," said Hunter.
William Wolfe, former general manager of Canadian exploration for Cominco, said the company discovered several kimberlites on Brodeur Peninsula in the same period as the Somerset Island discoveries. Small samples were tested for indicator minerals and microdiamonds.
"We may well have found microdiamonds [at Freightrain]," Wolfe said, adding that the desired macros were not found. "We didn't attach much significance to microdiamonds . . . not the way they do nowadays. This was before the widespread discovery of [the significance of] G10 garnets. Pyrope garnets and chrome diopsides were our main indicators, other than microdiamonds themselves.
"We didn't do a lot of microprobe work," Wolfe added. "It was in its early infancy then, so we weren't quantitatively finding the composition of the garnets. I would be the first to admit that we didn't adequately test these things. It just got too expensive to take it to the next phase. Cominco wasn't committed enough to the diamond business to get in there and take 10,000-tonne samples. By 1979 or 1980, we had lost interest."
Cominco optioned its Somerset Island properties to Cyclone Capital (now known as Nikos Exploration) in 1992. Cyclone, together with Breckenridge Resources, Westpine Metals, Westward Exploration and Alpine Exploration, picked up additional ground on Somerset Island and carried out airborne magnetic geophysical surveys, followed by limited surface sampling on several kimberlites. Results were disappointing, and eventually, in 1997, Nikos walked away.
International Capri Resources did some regional work across Baffin Island in the mid-1990s, including heavy mineral sampling. Initial indicator mineral analysis was encouraging for two potential areas in the Borden Basin, at the northern part of the island.
Elizabeth Kirkwood's First Strike Diamonds (YFI-V) (formerly Opus Minerals) bought Capri's diamond data and remaining unprocessed samples, and acquired more ground at the northern end of the island in 1999. Later that year, First Strike entered into a 50-50 joint venture with Mountain Province Diamonds (MPV-T).
During a summer program in 1999, First Strike found four kimberlite boulder trains terminating in lakes, plus outcropping kimberlite around one of the small lakes, and a land-based kimberlite showing 30 metres from the lake. The processing of 25-kg samples from the outcropping kimberlite returned several microdiamonds. Drawing from the overall analysis of indicator minerals recovered from the kimberlite samples, the partners concluded that while the kimberlite is diamond-bearing, it is unlikely to be of sufficient grade to warrant further work. However, based on the analysis of some 294 stream and glacial sediment samples, indicator minerals were found in four other target areas outside of the "discovery area."
The company later reported that these trains "contain indicators (such as ilmenites and eclogitic garnets) which are not present in the trains from the discovery area and some of which are derived from the diamond inclusion field."
A follow-up program in 2000 uncovered kimberlite boulder trains and an outcropping kimberlite dyke in the Fabricius Fiord area. Kimberlite dykes were also found less than 1 km from the original discovery. Small samples from six of the new showings were barren of diamonds. The project has since sat idle as limited funds prevented First Strike from returning to the field.
Baffin Island first appeared on the radar screen of Twin Mining while it was conducting exploration on the Torngat diamond-bearing dyke system in northern Quebec (where it is also finding commercial-size gem-quality diamonds). In August 1998, prospector and helicopter pilot Fred Tatarnic staked three mineral claims covering the Freightrain prospect.
Davis told The Miner that Tatarnic collected three pails of weathered kimberlite from Freightrain and later panned through the sample "handful by handful on his back step" over the winter months and found a 0.768-carat, gem-quality diamond. Tatarnic later sent off a 26.45-kg sample to Lakefield Research, which recovered 13 micros and two macros. (A macro is here defined as exceeding 0.5 mm in at least one dimension.)
Derbuch said he became aware of Tatarnic's find through Bruce Jago, the manager of the diamond laboratory at Lakefield. Tatarnic was looking for a partner for the Freightrain project.
Twin entered into a preliminary agreement in April 2000 with Helix Resources, a private company associated with Tatarnic, and acquired the rights for an initial payment of $50,000 and 30,000 shares. To maintain a 100% interest, Twin must make further payments totalling $800,000 and 345,000 shares by the end of 2006. An additional $500,000 is due upon receipt of development permits, and a further $1 million and 500,000 shares upon production of a half-million carats. Helix retains a 5% net profits interest and a 1% gross royalty.
Twin has since added to its Jackson Inlet property by staking surrounding ground, boosting its total package to 654 sq. km. Davis first visited the Freightrain prospect in May 2000 and collected 94.52 kg of weathered material from a 10-by-10-metre patch of bare snow. The aggregate sample was collected to a maximum depth of 10 cm at 17 random points, returning 39 micros and three macros.
Twin then initiated a trenching and sampling program. A total of 1,669 kg of fresh and weathered kimberlite, taken from five sites, yielded 619 micros and 62 macros. The five showings were in an area measuring roughly 360 by 100 metres.
From the air, Freightrain looks like three dark brown circular patches oriented along a northeast-southwest axis and surrounded by tan-coloured weathered material. On the ground, sparse tan-brown weathered kimberlite fragments are interspersed with predominant limestone fragments on frost boil surfaces. Last year's mapping identified 11 other specific areas of surface kimberlite fragments in the immediate area of the five kimberlite showings.
Lakefield Research produced heavy mineral concentrates from 8-to-10-kg samples of kimberlite taken from 10 sites on the Freightrain body. The riffled samples contained anywhere from 60 to 120 grains of chromite and 90-125 grains of garnet. The grains were then probed. An average of 28% of the garnets is classified as sub-calcic, G10 chromium pyrope, whereas an average of 5% are high-pressure eclogitic garnets. An interpretation of the chromite data by Lakefield shows that an average of 46% of the chromites fall within the diamond inclusion field.
How's that for a fantasy come true! I've done that with saphires on Montanna’s Eldorado Bar and its exciting, but finding a 3/4 carrat diamond from a grab sample... thats got to have given Tatarnic a heart attack!
Anyway, the short answer is yes, I imagine some folks may well be kicking themselves either now or a year from now.
Hope this answers your question.
Regards
Vaughn |
