Ashton hoots over Hibou
Ashton Mining of Canada Inc (TSX:ACA)
Shares Issued 76,999,100
Last Close 10/18/2005 $1.09
Wednesday October 19 2005 - Street Wire
by Will Purcell
Ashton Mining of Canada Inc. has found more kimberlite promise on its Foxtrot property in the Otish Mountains region of Quebec. The company hopes to make a mine out of several of its smaller Renard pipes that lie in a tight cluster in the central part of the property, but the encouragement is expanding beyond those narrow bounds. Ashton's Lynx dike could well become part of an Otish Mountains mine, and a new dike just east of Lynx is delivering enough promise to warrant its own name. Ashton discovered a few more dikes this year as well. Those finds add more promotability to the Renard story.
The Hibou dike
A series of kimberlite boulders in the area between Lynx and Renard sparked Ashton's interest this year, and the company produced some encouraging diamond counts from some of the material. Late this summer, Ashton managed to poke its first holes into a new dike, about 1,300 metres east of Lynx and nearly one kilometre west of the northern end of the Renard cluster.
The first four holes suggested a strike length of 175 metres and an average width of about 2.5 metres, with all signs pointing to a much longer system that could have a significant down-dip dimension. As a result, the toutable diamond tallies from the float had Ashton's ever-optimistic shareholders speculating about a possible big addition to the Renard project.
Ashton also seemed hopeful, but the company waited until it tested more float and drilled more holes before it hopped aboard its own bandwagon. The new find went without a name for several weeks, but some new tests and a big increase in the dimensions prompted Ashton to dub its new find Hibou.
That gives Ashton an owl to go with its pussycat. The latest encouragement from the Hibou dike undoubtedly had some of Ashton's weary shareholders dancing by the light of the moon (groan), but the company's shrinking share price might seem more like a nightmare, not a pleasing bedtime story.
The latest diamond counts from Hibou support the early encouragement and suggest that the owl could have a grade comparable with Lynx and some of the better Renard pipes. Ashton processed another 150 kilograms of boulders, coming up with 482 diamonds larger than a 0.10-millimetre cut-off. That works out to about 3,200 stones per tonne. The first 100-kilogram batch of float delivered 279 diamonds, or nearly 2,800 stones per tonne.
There were some larger diamonds in the latest sample, supporting hopes that Hibou will have a coarse population of diamonds. Nearly 100 of the stones in the latest parcel sat on a 0.30-millimetre screen, accounting for about 20 per cent of the haul. The 30 gems larger than a 0.425-millimetre sieve works out to about 6 per cent of the parcel.
The latest test contained seven diamonds large enough to remain on a 0.85-millimetre sieve. That screen is the minimum cut-off typically used by Ashton and other explorers for tiny mini-bulk tests. As well, three of the stones sat on a larger 1.18-millimetre sieve, which is a typical cut-off for larger samples.
Those proportions are slightly higher than the first batch of Hibou float delivered. About 19 per cent of the stones sat on a 0.30-millimetre screen, while 5 per cent clung to a 0.425-millimetre mesh. That earlier test contained four diamonds large enough to sit on a 0.85-millimetre sieve, with one stone remaining on the larger 1.18-millimetre screen.
The two tests are surprisingly consistent, and that could bode well for the diamond potential of Hibou, the likely source of the boulders. Ashton's total parcel now sits at 761 diamonds, garnered from 250 kilograms. That works out to just over 3,000 stones per tonne.
The 150 diamonds large enough to sit on a 0.30-millimetre sieve account for about 20 per cent of the entire parcel, while the 44 gems found clinging to a 0.425-millimetre screen are about 5.8 per cent of the entire haul. Ashton now has 11 diamonds large enough to pop up in a small mini-bulk test, and four of the stones sat on a 1.18-millimetre mesh.
The owl and the pussycat
Ashton often trumpets the details of its larger diamonds, but none of the Hibou stones had a weight worthy of mention. That probably muted the market reaction to the latest tallies. Nevertheless, the detailed numbers from the cumulative sample of float suggests that some promotable large diamonds will turn up in bigger tests.
Ashton processed 464.4 kilograms of boulders and drill core form Lynx, coming up with 1,312 diamonds. That works out to a rate of 2,825 diamonds per tonne, which is remarkably close to what Ashton is finding at Hibou. As well, the diamond size distribution of the Lynx samples seems comparable with the Hibou float.
Ashton recovered 250 diamonds on the 0.30-millimetre screen, or about 19 per cent of the Lynx parcel. The 98 gems found on the 0.425-millimetre sieve points to a proportion of just over 7 per cent. As well, the proportion of larger stones in the Lynx material is eerily similar to what Ashton found at Hibou.
All that could bode well for the diamond grade for Hibou, as Lynx produced impressive results from small boulder samples. Ashton processed three small batches of boulders from Lynx over the past few years, coming up with promotable results. In all, about 14.13 tonnes of the material delivered 19.11 carats of diamonds, mainly using a 1.18-millimetre cut-off. That works out to a grade of about 1.35 carats per tonne.
The best result came from the southern end of Lynx, where 4.6 tonnes of rock yielded a grade of about 2.56 carats per tonne. A 5.66-carat gem helped inflate that hefty grade, but a 1.17-carat stone in the same sample helped lessen the likelihood that the find was a fluke.
The first batch, from the central area of Lynx, produced a diamond that weighed nearly one carat. That sample had an average diamond content of 1.20 carats per tonne. The lowest result came from the northern end of Lynx, where 5.66 tonnes of rock managed a grade of just 0.47 carat per tonne, without any larger stones.
That suggests there is an increasing grade from north to south at Lynx. Still, it will take much larger tests to prove that is the case, as the presence or absence of large diamonds can easily skew a small test. Further, the diamond counts from caustic analysis suggest the Lynx dike could have a more consistent grade.
At first glance, the similarities between the diamond counts from the Lynx and Hibou boulders might arouse suspicion that the float material has a common source. That is not the case however, as the drill core from the Lynx dikes is clearly a match for what Ashton found in the matching Lynx boulders. Meanwhile, the Hibou material is well up-ice from the Lynx dikes.
Further, the Foxtrot partners now have a lengthy bedrock dike system at Hibou that is the apparent source of the new float. Ashton drilled another two dozen holes into the dike, finding a strike length of at least 850 metres. As well, the drilling points to a down-dip extent of 500 metres, to the east-northeast of the surface position of the dike. The latest tests still suggest an average thickness of about two metres, which is comparable with what Ashton found along the central and southern portions of Lynx.
There still is room for expansion. The dike remains open to the west-northwest and in the down-dip direction, and like Lynx, there probably are some areas with thicker intersections. Ashton traced Lynx for about four kilometres, and there is no reason that the dimensions of Hibou will not grow further, through another drill program.
New hope
Ashton also drilled more holes into Renard-10, which the company now describes as a dike, not a small pipe. The feature produced kimberlite hits that ranged from one metre to 15 metres, in a 10-hole program over the past few years. Renard-10 now has a strike length of about 350 metres, and the body is about 20 metres wide, although much of that width contains country rock zones between a series of smaller kimberlite dikes.
Ashton processed another 49 kilograms of the material, coming up with 63 diamonds. That works out to about 1,280 stones per tonne. Eight of the diamonds sat on a 0.30-millimetre screen, or about 13 per cent of the parcel. The five stones found on a 0.425-millimetre mesh point to a proportion of about 8 per cent.
Earlier, Ashton recovered 64 diamonds from Renard-10, but that took 188 kilograms of kimberlite. That first tally suggested a diamond rate of about 340 stones per tonne. The haul included 12 gems large enough to sit on a 0.30-millimetre sieve, or about 19 per cent of the total. The parcel included a gem that sat on a 1.18-millimetre screen and another that clung to a 0.85-millimetre mesh. Ashton has another 200 kilograms of rock for processing and a new set of tallies will provide a better signal of the diamond content at Renard-10.
Ashton is beginning to add more substance to a series of dikes farther to the north. The company began poking about in the area about five kilometres north of its Renard cluster several years ago. The work revealed an encouraging indicator mineral anomaly and samples produced six diamonds over the past few years.
A new round of drilling suggests a dike system with an average thickness of about 1.2 metres, over a strike length of at least 225 metres. That is far more promising than the narrow drill hits the company scored in an earlier effort, and Ashton now has some small kimberlite samples for diamond recovery. Further plans depend on the result of that analysis, but the diamonds in the till samples seem an encouraging start.
Ashton lost five cents Tuesday, closing at $1.09 on 30,000 shares. |
