Shore Gold releases 11th set of Star diamond recoveries
2004-12-13 16:46 ET - News Release
Shares issued 67,575,753
SGF Close 2004-12-13 C$ 2.89
Mr. George Read reports
STAR DIAMOND PROJECT: OVER 2,737 CARATS TO DATE MORE LARGE DIAMONDS IN 343 CARAT PARCEL
Shore Gold Inc. has released the 11th set of diamond recoveries from the Star kimberlite. The diamond recoveries to date total 2,737.67 carats from 19,737.72 dry tonnes processed. These results are for six kimberlite batches of a total of approximately 80 to 100 kimberlite batches that will be processed as part of the bulk sampling program on the Star diamond project, the aim of which is to recover a parcel of approximately 3,000 carats for valuation purposes. A total of 2,279 commercial-sized diamonds (greater than 1.18-millimetre square mesh screen), collectively weighing 339.83 carats, has been recovered from the treatment of 1,809.77 dry tonnes of kimberlite. Fifty-seven diamonds greater than one carat have been recovered and the four largest stones are 7.70, 6.31, 5.72 and 5.47 carats, respectively. In addition, 226 diamonds (3.46 carats) were recovered down to 0.85-millimetre square mesh. The colour of 67 per cent of these diamonds has been classified as white, with a further 12 per cent classed as off-white.
These six kimberlite batches (of a total of 62 processed) have been mined from the southeast drive (batches 45A, 45B, 46 and 47) and the north drive (batches 48 and 49) developed from the 235-metre shaft station. All of these kimberlite batches have been recovered from within the early Joli Fou-equivalent kimberlite. Results to date have shown that higher diamond grades are associated with the early Joli Fou-equivalent kimberlite than with the late Joli Fou-equivalent kimberlite. The relationships between these two kimberlites types are illustrated in cross-sections available on the Shore Gold website: www.shoregold.com.
Batches 50, 51A, 51B, 52, 53, 54, 55A, 55B, 56A, 56B and 57A (all from 235-metre level) have been processed on site and the concentrates dispatched to the sorting laboratory for final diamond recovery. Results from these batches are pending. A total of 22,500 dry tonnes has been processed through the on-site DMS plant. All batches processed to date are classified as crater facies volcaniclastic kimberlites. Kimberlite processed and diamond results from the latest six sample batches are listed in the table below. Grades are expressed in carats per hundred tonnes (cpht).
Dia- Larg-
monds est
number stone
Batch Dry of Total Grade (car-
No. tonnes stones (carats) (cpht) ats)
45A 229.67 295 29.81 12.98 2.56
45B 233.53 310 35.65 15.26 1.70
46 235.08 448 46.01 19.57 4.29
47 377.70 510 61.73 16.34 2.63
48 355.02 530 74.17 20.89 4.45
49 378.77 412 95.92 25.32 7.70
Total 1,809.77 2,505 343.29 18.97
The four largest stones are 7.70 (batch 49, white), 6.31 (batch 49, grey), 5.72 (batch 49, off-white) and 5.47 (batch 49, white) carats, respectively. Twenty-one diamonds exceed two carats and 57 diamonds exceed one carat, of which 33 are white, 12 are off-white, eight are grey, three are brown and one is yellow. A total of 111 diamonds exceed 0.5 carat. Sixty-seven per cent of this diamond parcel is classified white in colour, with a further 12 per cent classified as off-white. The diamond parcel includes 16 yellow, eight pink and four amber stones. Ninety-nine per cent of the carat weight of this parcel occurs in diamonds greater than 1.18-millimetre square mesh.
Senior vice-president, exploration, George Read, states: "This parcel brings our total diamond recoveries to 2,737 carats, which places Shore in an excellent position to recover well in excess of 3,000 carats from the complete bulk sample. Completion of on-site kimberlite bulk sample processing is expected in early January and final diamond recoveries will be reported as soon as they are available from SOS Lakefield Research. The final diamond parcel will be acid cleaned and subsequently valued by a number of independent, expert valuators. The average run-of-mine value for the Star diamond parcel will then be published. We are confident that the frequency of large stones and the abundance of white goods will add significant value to the Star diamond parcel."
The diamond recovery procedure includes on-site processing of kimberlite through the modular dense media separator (DMS), after which DMS concentrates are batch fed through an X-ray flow-sort. In order to ensure the recovery of low luminosity diamonds, the flow-sort tailings are processed over a grease table. Flow-sort and grease table concentrates are transported by a secure carrier to SGS Lakefield Research for final diamond recovery. The SGS Lakefield Research process includes drying, screening, magnetic separation, manual sorting, and diamond weighing and description. SGS Lakefield Research is accredited to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard by the Standards Council of Canada as a testing laboratory for specific tests.
Senior vice-president, exploration, Mr. Read, professional geoscientist in the provinces of Saskatchewan and British Columbia, is the qualified person responsible for the verification and quality assurance of analytical results.
The Star diamond project was designed to recover a parcel of at least 3,000 carats of diamonds to enable an accurate valuation of the stones. |
