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

To: VAUGHN who wrote (2380)	2/3/2005 3:13:34 PM
From: Letmebe Frank	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 16205

Vaughn, heres an MTX story courtesy of Halcrow... followed by one for DFI... From Minesite.com Minews Story Date: February 03, 2005 Chuck Fipke Wants To Replicate Past Success At Metalex Ventures. Remember Chuck Fipke? He was the diamond explorer who made a fortune out of the discovery of the Ekati mine in Canada before his ex-wife got her hands on his shares in Dia Met Minerals. Chuck, however, shrewdly hung on to a direct interest in the mine which is now operated by BHP Billiton and the cheques keep rolling in. He is now chairman of another diamond explorer , Metalex Ventures which has projects in Canada, Greenland, Morocco and Angola. The president of the company is Peter Gregory who was part of the team which discovered the Merlin diamond mine in Australia as well as new diamond occurrences on several continents. Metalex has access to the proprietary technology, developed by Chuck Kipke’s CF Minerals Research over the past twenty five years and it has been supplemented by Kel-Ex Development. As a result the company can focus on the discovery of significantly diamondiferous kimberlites and thus fast-track commercial success, if such a thing is possible in the arcane science of diamond exploration which can be exceedingly frustrating to even the greatest experts. The company’s principal projects in Canada are the Attawapiskat and the Kyle Lake projects in Northern Ontario and the Quebec project in Western Quebec. The 60 per cent owned Attawapiskat project comprises a claimed area of approximately 304 sq kms near De Beers’ Victor diamond deposit. De Beers has claimed that Victor will have a mine life of 12 years at a production of 2.5 million tones/year. The grade is thought to be around 2.5 carats/100 tonnes and the average diamond value is thought to be as high as US$300/carat. Nearology is the name of the game and Metalex has discovered 18 interpreted unexplained glacial trains of diamond indicator minerals within 10 kms of Victor. The diamond indicator minerals have diamond inclusion chemistry typical of that found in commercial diamond deposits. As many grains are fresh and angular, they are considered to be derived from undiscovered kimberlite diamond sources nearby. The Kyle Lake diamond project is located approximately 100 kms west of Attawapiskat in an area where five kimberlitic pipes, two of which are significantly diamond bearing, were discovered in the 1990’s. These kimberlite pipes were discovered by drill testing aeromagnetic anomalies and Metalex has an 80 per cent interest in 44 claims securing 44 similar aeromagnetic anomalies. Core drilling six of the anomalies intersected field identified kimberlite at two locations 260 metres apart. It is not known whether these two intersections are part of the same kimberlitic body. Testing of 232 kgs of kimberlitic material from these discoveries is in progress and drill testing the remaining anomalies is in progress As proven by Ashton’s discoveries in the Otish Mountains, Quebec does contain commercial grade kimberlites and Metalex is involved in a joint venture which has been sampling drainage and loam in the west of the province. Diamond indicator minerals have been found in several samples, possibly indicating undiscovered diamond bearing kimberlite fields and collection of follow up samples has been completed. A total of 353 mineral claims are held, some of which secure geophysical targets with kimberlite indicator minerals containing diamond inclusion chemistry down ice. In Greenland Metalex has a 100 per cent interest in an exploration license where previous exploration has identified ten areas containing diamond indicator minerals with particularly favorable chemistry in drainage and till samples. Microdiamonds have also been found in kimberlite float nearby. Future work will consist of backtracking the freshest and best indicator minerals to their source rocks. The Morocco project covers an area which has never been systematically explored for diamonds or other minerals before. Drainage and loam samples have been collected and so far approximately two thirds of them have been analysed. Kimberlite indicator minerals have been found in three areas. It is in Angola, however, that Metalex pins its hopes for early cash flow from alluvial diamond production. The company has an alluvial diamond licence covering part of the Chitamba - Lulo kimberlite cluster and the Cucolo and Cuango rivers. The Chitamba - Lulo kimberlite cluster is thought to be the source area for the abundant alluvial diamonds mined from the Cuango river downstream. Current alluvial mines along the Cuango produce about US$200 million of diamonds annually with an average stone value of US$200/carat. There are unconfirmed reports that artisan miners have been recovering large diamonds and plenty of them within this licence. Metalex has collected more than 100 drainage samples and these have been sent to Canada for analysis. The company’s interest in the Chitamba alluvial license is subject to an underlying agreement with several other foreign investors and amounts to 51 per cent prior to payback and 33 per cent thereafter. One to keep an eye on. ------------------------------------- Diamond Fields sees indicator minerals at Grand Cape Diamond Fields International Ltd (:DFI) Shares Issued 68,978,403 Last Close 1/31/2005 $0.42 Tuesday February 01 2005 - News Release Mr. Gregg Sedun reports DIAMOND FIELDS ANNOUNCES EARLY STAGE PROGRESS IN LIBERIAN DIAMOND HUNT Diamond Fields International Ltd. has provided results from its initial diamond exploration work on the 1,095-square-kilometre Grand Cape exploration licence in western Liberia. Grand Cape is underlain by Archean aged rocks of the Guinea shield and is prospective for diamondiferous kimberlite pipes and dikes. The property is optioned from Ducor Minerals Inc., a Liberian registered company. The first eight stream sediment samples from reconnaissance sampling near the Camp Alpha prospect contained indicator minerals suggestive of a diamondiferous kimberlite source. The indicator minerals include five kimberlitic garnets and over 1,000 ilmenites (due to substantial quantities of ilmenite in all size fractions of the samples, the lab was instructed to stop picking at 50 visually identified kimberlitic ilmenites per size fraction after the initial three samples were picked). Of the garnets recovered and probed, one is a G10 garnet from the G10D facies diamond stability field (Grutter, Gurney, et al., 2004) and the other four are G9s, based on the geochemical divisions of Gurney (1984). Of 160 ilmenites probed (20 per sample), 159 were confirmed kimberlitic. They form two distinct geochemical populations when plotted using the Haggerty (1975, 1976) method, indicating separate source kimberlite bodies are probably represented. The samples were collected from a small closed drainage that originates approximately five kilometres further upstream from the last sample point. Samples collected from an adjacent drainage are already in the lab for processing. Previous exploration has identified kimberlite dikes in the area and artisinal workings are reported to have recovered diamonds. The Grand Cape concession is immediately adjacent to the Kpo property of Mano River Resources, where five diamondiferous kimberlites are being evaluated under a joint venture between Mano and Trans Hex of South Africa. There are numerous other target areas within the 1,095-square-kilometre property that will be systematically sampled during the reconnaissance phase of the program. The Grand Cape property is also prospective for greenstone and banded iron formation hosted gold deposits, which will also be targeted in this initial round of evaluation sampling. Diamond Fields' exploration team comprises Liberian geologists seconded from the Department of Minerals and Energy directed by Diamond Fields' chief geologist, Randal Cullen. The stream sediment samples were jigged in the field to create approximately one kilogram of heavy mineral concentrate, sent to Nexo Labs of Kyalami, South Africa (ISO 14001 accreditation has been applied for) and picked by Sophie Napier, a mineralogist with more than 10 years industry experience. Indicator minerals were then microprobed at the analytical facility of the University of Johannesburg (a merger between Rand Afrikans University and Wits University). The results of the stream sediment sampling program have been reviewed, verified (including sampling, analytical and test data) and compiled by the Diamond Fields' geological staff supervised by Randal Cullen, PGeol, a qualified person as indicated under NI 43-101.