Starter, I don't understand what you mean by "Wasn't Kensington hoping for a DeBeers nod ? Are we still in it ?"
Monopros, the Canadian arm of De Beers, has been very much involved in the Fort a la Corne JV since 1992, and still is. A news release regarding the 1998 drilling program is expected in the next few weeks.
There is a similar article about Troymin in the Financial Post this weekend:
canoe1.canoe.ca
* - "Due to existing infrastructure such as roads, the cost of exploring and developing any finds will be lower than the Northwest Territories. This means fields in Alberta can have fewer diamonds and lower quality yet still be commercial, Ettlinger said."
The irony is that much of the statements made around the Alberta play would be true for the Fort a la Corne project. I believe that the Alberta play is using the Fluor Daniel Wright report, commissioned for Fort a la Corne, to give a rough estimates of operating costs in Alberta, since they would have the same advantages of an existing infrastructure. See Kensington News release of February 20, 1996:
"To better understand the economics of mining and processing such large kimberlite bodies, Fluor Daniel Wright Ltd. was commissioned to carry out a hypothetical scoping study based on exploiting a large Fort a la Corne kimberlite. The study suggests that operating costs may be in the range of approximately CDN $15/tonne milled based on a 40,000 tonne/day operation."
* - "The size of many junior mining firms involved in the play, a number with market capitalizations less than $10 million, offers huge rewards for investors if commercial diamond finds are made on these companies' properties, said Art Ettlinger of Yorkton Securities Inc. in Vancouver."
The Fort a la Corne project is much more advanced and may be close to proving that at least two of those huge kimberlites would be economical to mine but has not benefited for the last two years from the hype surrounding the Alberta play. Most of those companies have not yet proven that they have kimberlites, let alone diamond bearing ones.
I like to buy stocks when things are still quiet rather than at the top of the market. A clever promotion could be made on the right comparisons between the two plays. Kensington management is promising to give it a shot, we shall see... I also like the current renewal of interest in Shore Gold. |
