NEWS OUT
SouthernEra Resources Limited -
Island-Arc's winter exploration program on track
SouthernEra Resources Limited
SUF
Shares issued 25,695,265
1999-02-03 close $7.7
Thursday Feb 4 1999
See Island-Arc Resources Corporation (IAR) News Release
Mr. Lawrence Barr reports
Island-Arc Resources is informed that the winter exploration program on its Back
Lake diamond exploration project will proceed as originally scheduled. The
project area is south of the Dia Met and Aber Resources kimberlite pipes at Lac
de Gras, east of Winspear's Snap kimberlite find and northwest of the
Monopros/Mountain Province pipes at Kennedy Lake.
The Back Lake diamond exploration project is operated by SouthernEra
Resources, which presently holds a 70 per cent interest and is responsible for 100
per cent of exploration expenditures. Island-Arc Resources holds a 10.62 per
cent interest in the project, carried until six months after a commercial production
decision is made on one or more kimberlite pipes in the project area. The
remaining 19.38 per cent interest is held by Bert Applegath's Kalahari Resources
Ltd.
A sonic drill, which will carry out the first phase of this year's exploration, will
arrive at the Munn Lake camp in about three weeks. A series of sonic drill fences
(lines of sonic drill holes perpendicular to the direction of ice movement during the
last ice age) will be drilled through the entire section of lake bottom sediments into
bedrock on Munn Lake and, later, on Margaret Lake, which is nearby to the east.
Sonic drilling is a fast and inexpensive diamond exploration tool, the potential of
which has been proven in the Lac de Gras area. Up to 10 holes can be drilled per
shift, and there will be no wait for sampling results. Sediment core obtained from
the sonic drill will be analyzed in an on-site processing facility established in the
Munn Lake camp by SouthernEra. Samples will be immediately washed and
screened and the heavy minerals will be concentrated all the way through heavy
media separation. The heavy mineral particles will then be manually picked and
examined by microscope to identify specific kimberlite indicator minerals:
chromites, ilmenites, pyrope garnets, etc. Results from each day's sonic drilling will
be available in 36 hours to guide the next day's drilling while the previous day's
samples are being processed.
The combination of sonic drilling and on-site sample processing is an extremely
efficient way to explore for diamonds.
Munn Lake Sonic Drilling
The objective of the sonic drilling at Munn Lake is to find the source of the Yuryi
kimberlite float occurrence on the west shore of Munn Lake which contains
kimberlite boulders up to 25 metres in size in two boulder fields which lie 100
metres apart. A 581 kilogram (1,281 pound) bulk sample recovered 226
diamonds, including 62 macrodiamonds with one 0.12 carat diamond and four
others greater than 0.01 carats. Forty-four per cent of the pyrope garnets were
G-10 per cent. This is extremely high by world standards and indicates that the
source of the Yuryi kimberlite is well within the diamond stability field in the earth's
mantle. In comparison, kimberlites from the Lac de Gras area where Dia Met's
Ekati diamond mine is now in production typically contain 18 to 25 per cent
G-10s. In terms of diamonds and G-10s, more G-10s are definitely better.
The sonic drill fence lines on Munn Lake will be moved progressively up ice (to
the northeast, in the direction the ice sheet came from) until an up-ice indicator
mineral cutoff is established. This cutoff point is defined by noting the geographical
position where indicator minerals are no longer found in lake bottom samples
which will indicate the bedrock source has been passed. Following localization of
the bedrock source of the indicator minerals, diamond drilling will test for the
kimberlite bedrock source in the area of the last position where indicator minerals
were found in the till.
During sonic drilling, bedrock will be examined to determine if it is the normal
mudstone or granite country rock or if the drill has actually penetrated kimberlite.
The confidence level is high that the source of the Yuryi kimberlite boulders are a
pipe or pipes under Munn Lake. The size of the boulders and the friability of
kimberlite would indicate that it is highly unlikely (although not impossible) that the
Yuryi kimberlite float was glacially rafted (carried on top of the ice sheet) from a
more distant source than Munn Lake.
Margaret Lake Sonic Drilling
Sampling by SouthernEra has identified additional indicator mineral trains leading
to Margaret Lake, just east of Munn Lake. No indicator minerals have been found
on the other (east) side of Margaret Lake, suggesting that another kimberlite
source lies underneath Margaret Lake. Fences of sonic drill holes on Margaret
Lake will attempt to localize this source as well for additional diamond drilling this
season.
Water depth should not be a problem in terms of development of economic
kimberlite occurrences found under these lakes. Munn Lake, for example, is less
than 10 metres deep in the area of the Yuryi occurrence.
(c) Copyright 1999 Canjex Publishing Ltd. canada-stockwatch.com
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