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Gold/Mining/Energy : Pure Gold Minerals (PUG)-TSE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Famularo who wrote (160)	1/5/1998 3:05:00 PM
From: Jesse	Respond to of 1030

Pure Gold Minerals Inc - Yorkton says buy Pure Gold Minerals Inc PUG Shares issued 24870966 1998-01-02 close $1.3 Monday Jan 5 1998 See Ashton Mining of Canada Inc (ACA) Research Art Ettlinger says why Ashton Mining of Canada and Pure Gold Minerals have experienced very early success in their Alberta diamond exploration program. Ashton, which is 62% owned by diamond miner Ashton Mining Ltd of Australia, and Pure Gold are exploring over 28 million acres in the Buffalo Hills area of north central Alberta. These companies have an option agreement with Alberta Energy Company Ltd whereby Pure Gold and Ashton have the right to earn interests of 15% and 42.5%, respectively, in the Buffalo Hills property. Much of this land is underlain by the Buffalo Head craton, which in the area of their recent kimberlite discoveries, is deformed by the Peace River arch. This is a geologic environment highly prospective for diamond exploration. Using airborne and surface magnetic surveys, Ashton has identified over 70 potential kimberlite targets. Drilling was initiated in January of this year and their first 16 drill holes identified 16 kimberlites. Diamonds have been extracted from all but four of these pipes. Mini-bulk sampling of the K-14 pipe complex resulted in determination of a grade of 36 carats/100 t based on an 8.17 t sample collected from 7 reverse circulation drill holes. A second 19.25 t sample collected from five surface pits returned an average grade of 10 carats/100 t. Commercial-sized diamonds up to 0.6 carats were recovered. More recently, core drilling of kimberlite K-91 has shown this pipe to also be diamond-bearing, with a total of 139 microdiamonds and seven macrodiamonds, up to 1.35 mm in size, reported by Ashton. Unknown at this point, is whether any of these pipes contain gem quality diamonds in commercial quantities. Exploration by Ashton, while further advanced than any of the other companies exploring for diamonds in Alberta is still in its early stages of discovery and understanding. Prior to any commercial determination being made, these pipes must be subjected to considerably more sampling. Once sampled, a parcel of diamonds of suitable size for grading must be recovered. For comparison, Aber Resources Ltd recently released information on the final evaluation of diamonds from its A-418 pipe on the Diavik project, NWT. An average price of US$56/carat was reported based on a parcel of 8,275 carats recovered form bulk sampling of approximately 2,200 t of kimberlite. Previously, the company arrived at an internal estimate of $60/carat from 4,200 carats of stones. The point being is that any estimate on the value of diamonds obtained by Ashton from the approximately 28 tonnes of kimberlite recovered thus far is highly premature. Since Ashton and Pure Gold are still in the early stages of exploration at Buffalo Hills, it is unlikely a final determination of pipe economics will be delivered during the coming year. The infrastructure and business climate of Alberta is ideally suited to relatively low cost diamond exploration and development projects. The fact that the majority of Ashton's kimberlite discoveries occur on land at depths of less than 50m below surface, and that magnetic surveys have worked so well in identifying buried pipes, also attests to the favorable geologic environment for diamond exploration in Alberta. It is our feeling that the developing diamond exploration scenario in the province will be long lived and potentially significant. Although it is too early to speculate whether a commercial diamond mine will be developed there, the positive features discussed above indicate that compared to the NWT, lower capital expenditures and operating costs can be expected for a diamond mine in Alberta. In addition to Buffalo Hills, Pure Gold holds interest in more than 10 million acres of land in southeastern Alberta. The bulk of this land is underlain by the prospective Hearne craton and has undergone little exploration to date. Ashton and Pure Gold will be exploring in the Buffalo Hills area for a long time to come. Based on their early success we recommend Ashton Mining of Canada and Pure Gold Minerals for speculative investors. (c) Copyright 1997 Canjex Publishing Ltd. canada-stockwatch.com