Mountain Province's Gahcho Kue at 50.5 million carats
2009-05-26 15:23 ET - News Release
Shares issued 59,932,381
MPV Close 2009-05-25 C$ 1.40
Mr. Patrick Evans reports
MOUNTAIN PROVINCE DIAMONDS ANNOUNCES UPDATED MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATE FOR GAHCHO KUACOPYRIGHT DIAMOND PROJECT
Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. has released the results of an updated mineral resource estimate for the Gahcho Kue diamond project located in Canada's Northwest Territories.
The updated National Instrument (NI) 43-101 resource report, summarized in the table, was prepared by AMEC Americas Ltd. This report describes an updated mineral resource estimate on the Gahcho Kue diamond project that incorporates information from geological and diamond revenue data updates completed since the previous technical report in 2003.
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Table 1: Gahcho Kue 2009 Mineral Resource Summary
(Effective Date April 20, 2009)
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Pipe Resource Volume Tonnes Carats Grade
Classification (Mm3) (Mt) (Mct) (cpht)
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5034 Indicated 5.1 12.7 23.9 188
Inferred 0.3 0.8 1.2 150
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Hearne Indicated 2.3 5.3 11.9 223
Inferred 0.7 1.6 2.9 180
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Tuzo Indicated 5.1 12.2 14.8 121
Inferred 1.5 3.5 6.2 175
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Summary Indicated 12.4 30.2 50.5 167
Inferred 2.5 6.0 10.3 173
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Notes:
1) Mineral Resources are reported at a bottom cut-off of 1.0 mm; cpht
= carats per hundred tonnes.
2) Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have
demonstrated economic viability
3) Volume, tonnes, and carats are rounded to the nearest 100,000
4) Tuzo volumes and tonnes exclude 0.6 Mt of a granite raft
5) Diamond price assumptions used to assess reasonable prospects of
economic extraction reflect mid-2008 price books with a 20% increase
factor. The prices assumed, on a per pipe basis (in US$), equate to
$113/ct for 5034, $76/ct for Hearne and $70/ct for Tuzo.
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Commenting, Mountain Province President and CEO, Patrick Evans said: "This updated mineral resource statement is the culmination of a fourteen-year exploration and evaluation program and represents a major milestone in the development of the Gahcho Kue project. In their report, AMEC confirms that the scientific and technical data on the Gahcho Kue project is now of sufficient quality and level of detail to support a feasibility study, which is currently under consideration by the Joint Venture partners."Industry-standard techniques were used to ensure appropriate calculation and reporting of the diamond resources at a +1 mm lower cut-off. The mineral resources were adjusted for the expected main treatment plant response by reducing recoveries in the lower size classes. AMEC had access to two sources of diamond valuations - one from WWW International Diamond Consultants (WWW), which is independent, and one from the Diamond Trading Company (DTC), which is associated with the Gahcho Kue project operator, De Beers Canada Inc. ("De Beers"). AMEC has relied on both valuations.To assess reasonable prospects for economic extraction to support declaration of a mineral resource, diamond valuations from WWW and DTC were analysed, and average mid-2008 pricing, with a 20 percent increase, was applied to the resource blocks. It is common practice in the industry to assume a higher long-term commodity price when determining a cut-off grade for mineral resources than the long-term commodity price used for mineral reserves or financial analysis. Average diamond pricing was only used to assess reasonable prospects of economic extraction to support declaration of mineral resources.All of the indicated mineral resources and a significant portion of the inferred resources were shown to have reasonable prospects of economic extraction through open-pit mining. The inferred resources of the Hearne pipe material lying outside of the resource pit shell was, at least conceptually, shown to have reasonable prospects of economic extraction using underground mining methods. All the Gahcho Kue kimberlites remain open to depth.A copy of the full AMEC report will shortly be published on SEDAR and EDGAR, and on the Company's website www.mountainprovince.com.
Mountain Province Diamonds (49 percent) is a joint venture partner with De Beers Canada Inc. (51 percent) in the Gahcho Kue project. De Beers is the operator of the project and can be called on to fund the project through to commercial production. Located in Canada's Northwest Territories, Gahcho Kue is one of the largest new diamond projects under development globally.
Qualified Person
The Qualified Person for the estimate is Ken Brisebois, P. Eng., an AMEC employee. The estimation and classification of the mineral resources conform to industry-best practices and meet the requirements of CIM (2005). |
