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Gold/Mining/Energy : Canadian Diamond Play Cafi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: m.philli who wrote (273)	11/1/2002 9:22:16 AM
From: Famularo	Respond to of 16213

For anyone interested in diamond exploration this www.minesite.com article is an interesting read. K9. Date : November 1, 2002 European Diamonds and Poplar Resources Go Head- to-Head In Race For Finnish Diamonds. Following up on the announcement last month by AIM listed European Diamonds that Gold Fields, the leading South African gold producer, is going to join with it in what is called a gold exploration collaborative venture on its properties in central Finland, the company has now said that it discovered numerous kimberlitic bodies during its summer exploration programme. This will not be of any interest to Gold Fields as European Diamonds will retain 100 per cent control of all its diamond interests and will receive a 25 per cent free carried interest up to completion of a bankable feasibility study on any gold deposit discovered at Lentiira. However the kimberlitic success should do no harm to the share price of European Diamonds which has tended to be underpinned by Gold Fields agreeing to invest £1.8 million in the company at 210p per share as well as spending several millions on exploration. According to Tony Williams, chairman of European Diamonds, “During the course of our diamond exploration work we have noticed indications of extensive gold mineralisation on our properties and this has been confirmed by the Geological Survey of Finland. This potential can now be rapidly assessed by one of the world's major gold companies and our shareholders will have a significant carried interest in any commercial gold discovery.” So that’s a good thing, but what his shareholders are really waiting to see is the word ‘diamonds’ allied to the word ‘kimberlites’ in the magic phrase ‘diamondiferous kimberlites’. What they have got now is confirmation that the company drilled into seven separate kimberlitic bodies within a major linear structural zone which appears to be many tens of kilometres long. The exploration team under Roy Spencer reckons that they have discovered a major new diamond district in central Finland and the next move is to test the diamond bearing potential of these kimberlites. Hopefully the word ‘diamondiferous’ will sparkle out of the next press release, but even then there will be a long haul before a decision can be made as to whether they are worth mining. All that is known so far is that drill samples have been sent to an independent laboratory at the other end of the world in Australia and large numbers of G10 pyropes have been found. These are minerals usually found in proximity to diamonds so they are a useful guide, but nothing beats finding an actual diamond no matter how small. Maybe the European Diamonds team is saving this up for an announcement at the AGM which is due to be held in November. Roy Spencer, the company’s CEO has been playing the diamond game in this region for some time and was responsible for the discovery of the famous Grip Pipe over the brorder in Russia’s Arkhangelsk diamnond district back in 1996. This Pipe is reported to contain over US$6 billion worth of diamonds, so his forecast that “ we continue to anticipate the discovery of a significant diamond source within this structural zone” deserves to be taken seriously. It is interesting to note that elsewhere in Finland another successful discoverer of diamonds also reckons that his chances of a repeat success are high. Walter Melnyk, now exploration director of Canadian listed Poplar Resources, was the co-discover of the Snap Lake Diamond project when project manager at Winspear Resources which was subsequently taken over by De Beers.. Based on that experience, Walter has been able to come up with some new interpretations of Poplar’s Finnish diamond project as he thinks that the work done there previously by Ashton and Dia Met failed to show just how exciting several of the kimberlite bodies they discovered truly are. According to Walter's re-analysis of existing data the unusual kimberlite occurrences are very similar in structure to Snap Lake. Ashton and Dia Met were, understandably, looking for the typical carrot-shaped formations typical of most pipes. Most of the bodies in the Kuopio-Kavvi field are, however, gently-dipping slab-like bodies that look more like a coal seam or other ore body than a kimberlite pipe. Because of his experience at Snap Lake, Walter was able to recognize these as kimberlitic dykes. A number of these kimberlitic pipes/bodies were reported to be diamondiferous by the Geological Survey of Finland and Poplar has claims over nineteen of them. The company’s properties are on the same Archaean Karelian Craton that hosts the Grip Pipe which is about 700 kms to the north east. Poplar is therefore some 300 kms south west of European Diamonds, but distance means little in such circumstances. The race is on between the two companies. Both have experienced jockeys who have been round the course before, but Poplar is the outsider at the moment. The fact that its exploration team is being supported by Dr. Nick Pokhilenko and his distinguished team of Russian diamond experts, however, should not be overlooked..