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Diamonds make stocks sparkle
New discoveries in Nunavut add lustre to industry's stars
Paul Luke
The Province
Tuesday, February 04, 2003
Catherine McLeod-Seltzer (left) and Eira Thomas are leaders in the great Canadian diamond hunt.
The great Canadian diamond hunt has exploded into a vast, new patch of ground in remote Nunavut.
Vancouver juniors run by two mining-industry stars saw their stocks whirl upwards yesterday after announcing two diamond discoveries in the rugged tundra of the Melville Peninsula.
Vancouver-based partners Stornoway Ventures, Northern Empire Minerals and Hunter Exploration Group said they recovered 228 diamonds from one site in their Aviat project, and 92 diamonds at another site two kilometres away.
The companies said they have acquired permitting rights to seven million acres in a peninsula larger than Vancouver Island.
"We are very pleased to have made a diamond discovery at this early stage and are optimistic that systematic exploration of this prospective land package may eventually lead to the identification of an economic diamond deposit in northeastern Nunavut," Stornoway Ventures CEO Eira Thomas said.
Analysts cautioned Aviat is a grass-roots effort still in its infancy, but Stornoway stock rocketed 64 cents to $1.06 on the TSX Venture Exchange, while Empire Minerals jumped 60 cents to $1.10.
Graeme Currie, a mining analyst with Canaccord Capital in Vancouver, said the Aviat discoveries expand the frontier of Canadian diamond hunting.
Melville Peninsula must be added to a list of exploration plays in Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec, Currie said.
"We certainly have other diamond discoveries out there. It now becomes a question of can we move them to an economic body," Currie said.
An estimated 540 kimberlites -- extinct, underground volcanoes that host diamonds -- have been discovered so far in Canada.
Aviat is not the only ground being combed in the Melville region. Diamond giant De Beers is exploring to the northeast on Baffin Island, while BHP Billiton is searching to the southwest.
B.C. geologist Chuck Fipke triggered Canada's diamond rush in 1991 with a discovery at Lac de Gras in the Northwest Territories. His find became the Ekati Mine.
Adding to the glitter of the Aviat project is the track record of Thomas and Stornoway president Catherine McLeod-Seltzer.
Thomas was 25 when her sleuthing as chief geologist guided Aber Resources to a stunning find in 1994 beneath Lac de Gras.
That discovery became the Diavik diamond mine, which is poised to start producing. Diavik will, for a time, be the world's richest mine in overall value of diamonds per tonne of rock.
McLeod-Seltzer, 42, co-founded Arequipa Resources in 1993.
Barrick Gold bought Arequipa for $1.1 billion in 1996. |
