Vaughn,
"SRM was supposed to have a D&P show Tuesday afternoon. I don't suppose you happened to see that presentation?" No, I could only afford one day to hike it into TO.
"Re: DDN, ... looking forward to their field results this year. I saw MK and gang on that Discovery Channel show last week which was all quite interesting." I missed that show. I couldn't find it online. Let me know if it comes on again!
"Man o man that Victoria Island is a wasteland. It sure demonstrated how desolate it really is up there." One thing Nancy mentioned is that it would be cheaper to mine on VI than at Ekati/Diavik, as they have an airport 80 or so KM away, and there is close ocean access. I was surprised by that. VI will go dormant though if the results from king eider don't cut the mustard.
"Re: KXL, I don't follow it but from looking at the website their NWT play appears to be right around the Indian Cabin on GSL and may be a well known deposit that has been known about and looked at off and on over the years. I've often boated in that area and marched around the deposit looking for rock/ore samples.." I didn't get the impression that it was a known deposit. It's on my radar, but I need more info before I dip my toes into that one. Sure went on a roller coaster ride today though! ca.finance.yahoo.com Looks like it may have some support at 1.75.
From what I read and saw, it would appear that a bunch of folks jumped in on very little real or substantive news. I wish that sort of irrational exuberance would occur in DDN, and some of the other diamond juniors with a lot more to crow about. Good luck if your in but it would appear quite a few are taking their gains and running to the bank. I think DOR would qualify for irrational exuberance in a diamond junior. However I just reviewed this NR: ca.us.biz.yahoo.com
It looks to be a fairly large resource that may prove to contain a healthy grade. Results are late:
The results of the ongoing delineation drilling (NQ and BQ) will be used to construct a block model and therefore a preliminary volume/tonnage estimate of the Leadbetter Conglomerate. Management's expectation is to present the modelling at the PDAC in March 2006.
Further results of diamond recovery by caustic fusion from drill core will be released on a regular basis, as soon as the Company receives them.
MINI-BULK SAMPLING:
-------------------
In order to gain a better understanding of the diamond distribution and diamond size variation in the Leadbetter Conglomerate a mini-bulk sampling program was executed from September to November of this year (Press Release of September 27th 2005). A total of approximately 600 tonnes of bedrock was excavated from over 100 pits in surface exposures across the Northern and Central sectors of the outcropping Leadbetter Conglomerate. At each sample site, approximately six (6) tonnes of bedrock was removed and placed into six sealed bags and shipped to SGS Lakefield Research's facilities in Lakefield, Ontario. There, each six tonne sample will be individually processed to recover diamonds having commercial characteristics (greater than 0.85 mm) by dense media separation (DMS). The processing of this material is expected to commence in mid-January 2006 with initial results available in mid-February. Diamond results will be released as the Company receives them.
I underestimated SGF's potential. Perhaps DOR has the goods too. We will know soon. I hope they come out with some healthy stones. They may be pulling out 600 carats of stones with their mini bulk. Here's what Will said about DOR:
Dianor drills up more Wawa encouragement...
by Will Purcell
John Ryder's Dianor Resources Inc. is busy poking holes into its Leadbetter diamond deposit. The drill program hit an encouraging type of rock in 13 of 16 drill holes so far. That promising phase of material is comparable with the diamond-bearing material found in several surface pits. Those earlier tests delivered toutable quantities of large diamonds, sparking hopes that the Leadbetter play could be an economic source of diamonds. The drill program is delivering encouraging intersections of that better material and comparable diamond counts would add more promise to the Leadbetter story.
The drilling
Much of Dianor's drilling consists of smaller core holes, but the company now has five completed tests using a larger NQ rig. The company drilled those five larger holes along a west-to-east line, spaced at 200-metre intervals. The program resulted in significant intersections in all five holes, but the best of the hits occurred in the eastern areas.
Dianor found two types of rock in its drilling. The uppermost layers of the Leadbetter deposit contain a particularly coarse-grained material that matches what Dianor found in its surface pits, while the deeper regions contained a very fine-grained basal rock unit. The latter material is not of much interest, but some thick drill hits on the coarse-grained, diamond-bearing rock offer added promise for the Leadbetter play.
Those drill hits increase significantly from the west toward the east, along the 800-metre zone drilled so far. The westernmost NQ hole encountered the coarse-grained material just below the surface and remained in the zone for 21.7 metres before passing into the fine-grained rock. A drill hole 200 metres to the east hit the promising rock at 3.0 metres and produced nearly 60 metres of coarse-grained core.
The diamond-bearing rock continued to thicken toward the east. A third hole entered the zone at 1.5 metres and delivered over 136 metres of coarse-grained core, while the fourth test hit the zone at 16 metres and remained in the diamond-bearing rock to a depth of 241.5 metres.
The final hole brought an even better result. It entered the zone at a depth of 42.6 metres and produced three main zones down to a depth of 417 metres. Those three zones produced a total of 306.5 metres of coarse-grained core that appears comparable with what Dianor found in its surface pits.
A sixth hole is in progress another 200 metres farther to the east. That test passed a depth of 251 metres without encountering the intriguing zone, but there could still be some deeper layers containing the rock. If not, the apparent extent along that particular line would be roughly 900 metres.
The Leadbetter deposit is still open to the north and south, and Dianor still has no real indication of the width of the body. The company has a crude idea of the dimensions at surface, which potentially span an area about 800 metres long and up to 400 metres wide.
If those measurements hold up at depth, the Leadbetter occurrence would have a promotable size. A body of rock with a length of 800 metres, an average width of 200 metres and an average vertical depth of 100 metres could theoretically contain about 40 million tonnes of diamond-bearing rock.
Although Dianor is still a long way from demonstrating such promising measurements, the company does seem off to a promising start. Drilling along a second east-west line will go a long way toward showing the size possibilities of the Leadbetter feature.
The diamonds
Dianor began touting diamond recoveries from the Leadbetter property late last year, but all the early tests involved recoveries by unconventional methods. The numbers offered considerable encouragement in the form of larger diamonds, but the method of collection and recovery left large degrees of doubt about the potential of Dianor's seemingly unique Wawa rock.
The company began collecting samples for processing by conventional means and the coarse-grained Leadbetter rock continued to offer promotable results. Dianor processed 352 kilograms of rock in 11 due diligence samples, and the material delivered 1,225 diamonds larger than a 0.106-millimetre cut-off. That worked out to 3,500 stones per tonne, which would pale in comparison with many Wawa results, but would carry great promise with a coarse size distribution curve.
That latter possibility appeared to be the case. There were 237 diamonds larger than a 0.30-millimetre sieve, which amounted to about 20 per cent of the parcel. As well, 104 of the diamonds sat on a 0.425-millimetre screen, accounting for about 8.5 per cent of the parcel. Those proportions far exceed what the better Wawa tests produced and they come close to what some of the better finds in Canada's North delivered.
As a result, there were some larger diamonds in the due diligence samples. Eleven diamonds sat on a 0.85-millimetre mesh, which is the cut-off typically used in a smaller mini-bulk test. Those diamonds accounted for nearly 1 per cent of the 1,225-stone parcel.
All that pointed to Dianor's Leadbetter rock having a potentially healthy diamond grade and a larger portion of the material added to the encouragement. The company processed about 750 kilograms of rock for macrodiamonds, recovering 82 stones large enough to cling to a 0.60-millimetre screen.
The sample produced 34 diamonds large enough to sit on a 0.85-millimetre sieve, which was a slight improvement on what the due diligence samples delivered. Ten of those latest diamonds also clung to a 1.18-millimetre screen, which is a frequent cut-off for a large bulk test. The largest Leadbetter diamond weighed 0.174 carat and it measured 3.5 millimetres long.
The entire parcel weighed 1.01 carats and just the diamonds larger than the mini-bulk cut-off would probably account for about three-quarters of a carat. Based on that figure, the diamond content of the 750-kilogram batch of Leadbetter rock was roughly one carat per tonne.
There were variations within the 11 due diligence samples and the six larger tests that followed, but all the differences seemed the result of normal statistical variation. In fact, the diamond content of most of the Leadbetter tests appeared surprisingly consistent. That could bode well for the results from the latest program, if Dianor finds similar consistency at depth.
The encouragement
Dianor's Leadbetter play is still at an early stage, but the project continues to jump the preliminary hurdles placed before it. The diamond-bearing occurrence is beginning to display a promotable size and a potentially promising grade that is far above what other Wawa explorers turned up.
If the diamond counts from the latest core samples show comparable numbers and stone size distributions, the results will give Mr. Ryder and Dianor a big promotional assist. Further, some substantial drill hits along a second line would offer an added boost to the project.
If the diamond counts prove consistent at depth, Dianor would be able to collect a significant sample of its Leadbetter rock at a modest expense. Unlike the expensive reverse circulation drill programs in areas like Fort a la Corne, where the kimberlite lies at depths greater than 100 metres, Dianor's material lies within just one metre of the surface in many places. As a result, the company could excavate a large batch of rock by trenching.
Diamond value also remains an unknown quantity, but there are hints of hope that the Leadbetter diamonds could be quite valuable. The prospector who got the play rolling late in 1993, Joe Leadbetter, turned up three larger diamonds on the property. Two of the stones were not worth much, although they weighed about one carat and one-quarter carat respectively.
The third diamond was another matter entirely. The 1.39-carat gem was a particularly attractive stone and carried a value of about $3,000 (U.S.). It is unclear just how much of a lucky find that one diamond was, but it would take just a small proportion of those stones to inflate the average value to a significant extent.
The plan
Dianor is now about halfway through its first phase of drilling, which the company thought would involve about 4,000 metres of drilling. Dianor also laid plans for a much larger program that would follow. Earlier this year, Mr. Ryder said the next phase would see up to 40,000 metres of drilling, which would carry a cost of up to $3-million.
If all goes well, those holes will produce a large amount of rock, but Dianor still seems reluctant to rush a grade estimate to the market. This spring, Mr. Ryder said the company would continue systematically, first defining the extent and geometry of the Leadbetter occurrence.
With some answers to those uncertainties, Dianor would process its core samples to assess the diamond content and its variability across the potentially large body. Only then would Dianor take a crack at a larger test. The company still has some available rock and its new core samples. With the new program continuing to deliver encouragement, mounting curiosity could prompt Mr. Ryder to provide some speedier answers.
The Leadbetter play carried Dianor's shares from less than a dime to a 72-cent crest in early February. Much of the speculative appeal seemed to wear off during the spring, and the stock withdrew to just 26 cents earlier this month. Dianor's shares recovered to the 35-cent range by mid-June, but the latest encouragement left investors unenthused.
Dianor lost one-half cent on Wednesday, closing at 32 cents on 67,000 shares
stockwatch.com
Too bad I didn't read that wire carefully enough! That was published on 2005-03-07 14:08 ET
LMBF |
