Hello Valuepro
Introductory remarks from Wednesday's diamond showing in Toronto (from TWG web site):
Twin Mining's Diamond Showing, April 3, 2002
Remarks by: Hermann Derbuch, Chairman, President & CEO
I would like to welcome you to our first diamond showing.
We are pleased to present to you diamonds extracted from our Jackson Inlet property located on Baffin Island, Nunavut. To date, more than 50 carats have been extracted from trench and 8 pit mini-bulk samples, totalling less than 250 tonnes of kimberlite.
Based on these excellent early results we are focusing on our 100% owned Jackson Inlet property and increase its resource potential by investigating the other 12 already known MAG anomalies which have very impressive dimensions of up to 600 meters diameter.
The location of Jackson Inlet in an arctic desert without plant life, animals or fish puts us in a low environmental risk area. Combined with the discovery of a deep-sea harbour close by ensures us low capital and operating costs, a recipe for success even at modest diamond grades.
With the quality of stones discovered, which Diamond Trading N.V. of Antwerp compares to high quality South African stones, and 100% ownership of the project, business opportunities for Twin Mining down the diamond pipeline become distinct possibility.
Remarks by: Dr. Bruce Jago, Manager Diamond Laboratory, Lakefield Research Limited
Twin Mining currently is active exploring a large claim block covering exposed kimberlite and a number of aeromagnetic anomalies that have been interpreted as buried kimberlite. Kimberlite is one of three principal, primary source rocks of diamond. It commonly occurs in carrot-shaped pipes that, at the time of formation, would have erupted onto the earth’s surface as a volcano. Kimberlite intrusives are modelled as having an upper, bowl-shaped crater, that usually has been eroded away, a long, carrot-shaped, mid-section or diatreme, and a lower hypabyssal section composed of irregular kimberlite bodies and feeder dykes.
In the late summer of 2001, Twin Mining excavated six samples of upper-level, crater-facies kimberlite from surface trenches that ranged in size between 2.5 and 76.3 tonnes. The samples were processed for commercial diamond content using a standard processing flow sheet consisting of:
Staged crushing to 12mm.
Wet screening at 0.8.
Concentration of diamond and other dense mineral phase using a dense media separation (DMS) plant.
Diamond recovery from DMS concentrates using a grease table and X-ray sorter.
Manual sorting of X-ray and grease table concentrates.
Individual diamond parcels were mechanically sieved into standard screen sizes and diamonds individually weighed, measured and described according to colour, clarity, percent preservation and morphological features.
Individual diamond parcels were recombined and hand sorted according to commercial diamond industry criteria viz. Sawable 1, Sawable 2, Makeable 1, Makeable 2, Clivage 1, Clivage 2 and Reject.
From the commercial viewpoint, a very high proportion (commonly 90%+) of the value of any diamond parcel lay in stones comprising Sawable 1, Sawable 2, Makeable 1 and Makeable 2 categories. Absolute stone values are applied according to colour, clarity, cut and carat weight.
Differences in the appearance of diamond parcels produced from different sampling sites on the same kimberlite intrusive are to be expected. These differences commonly result from the sampling of a number of different, separate intrusive phases that comprise the whole kimberlite body, each of which can have diamonds that are somewhat different from those recovered in adjacent phases.
Diamonds recovered from the six samples obtained from the Freightrain pipe share many physical characteristics but differ somewhat in the proportion of the Sawable, Makeable and Clivage. Thus far, sampling has not recovered any Bort, coated stones, reject or cubes. The principal difference in the character of these six diamond parcels and the two produced from sampling early in the summer of 2001 is the presence of Clivage. This category was absent in diamond parcels produced from the early summer sampling program, a feature that likely reflects the relatively small sample size (i.e. ~2 and 16 tonnes).
Remarks by: John Lindsay, P.Eng. , Chief Process Engineer, AMEC, E & C Services
Amec has been retained to review the QA/QC aspects of the sample processing and diamond recovery programme at Lakefield Research. This work has been led by John Lindsay, Twin Mining’s qualified person for sample processing and diamond recovery.
Amec’s scope has been to review and develop operating procedures for the sample processing activities. These procedures included the key QA/QC elements, including security related issues, which are required to ensure that the work is conducted to an acceptable standard and that efficient processing and diamond recovery is maintained throughout the programme. During the sample processing campaign, Amec visited LR on a regular basis to review operations and to audit compliance with the established procedures.
In Amec’s opinion, the work at LR was conducted to a high standard and meets typical industry standards for similar operations.
Amec is currently reviewing the diamond data, under the supervision of Malcolm Thurston, with a view to:
Reviewing the diamond data for general consistency, e.g. identifying anomalous size distribution data which would suggest losses in the process;
Reviewing the diamond size distribution to assess the potential for grade modelling;
Assess the reproducibility of the results compared with results from previous smaller samples to estimate a suitable sample size for future sampling campaigns.
Preliminary review of the diamond data indicates there is a good correlation between the micro and macro diamond results and that the results are consistent with results from previous smaller samples. In addition, size distribution curves do not appear to indicate significant anomalies in specific sieve sizes, which indicates good diamond release and recovery during the sample processing. These preliminary findings will be confirmed during the current detailed review by Malcolm Thurston.
Regards
Vaughn |
