Island-Arc's winter exploration program on track
Kalahari Resources Inc KLA
Shares issued 36,876,005 Feb 3 close $0.38
Thu 4 Feb 99 News Release
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.
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