The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
SRM: TSXV
President and CEO: Pamela D. Strand, M.Sc, P.Geol.
Executive Chairman: Julie Lassonde-Gray
Vice President, Exploration: Jennifer Burgess
Shear Minerals Ltd., a company focused primarily on diamond exploration and development in the Canada's Far North, has undergone a profound transformation in the past 12 months from early-stage explorer to would-be producer. Shear currently has a portfolio of nine diamond projects in Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Alberta, eight of which are drill-ready.
In August 2010, Shear purchased the defunct Jericho Diamond Mine and related assets in Nunavut from Caz Petroleum Inc. for 80 million shares and C$2 million in cash.
Located 420 kilometers (261 miles) northeast of Yellowknife, NWT, Jericho has an existing indicated diamond resource of 1.88 million carats and an inferred resource of 1.13 million carats.
An internal audit confirmed a sample grade of 11.3 carats per metric ton from 308.8 kilograms of kimberlite concentrate from recovery reject tailings at the Jericho mine with 52 macro diamonds representing 3.5 carats recovered from a small sample collected from the stockpile.
Jericho is a past-producer (2006-2008) of 780,000 carats from 1.2 million metric tons of kimberlite and more than C$200 million in infrastructure.
Shear holds a 100 percent interest in the 53,825-hectare (133,000 acres) Carat property, which surrounds and is contiguous to the Jericho mine.
The area has five known kimberlites within 10 kilometers trucking distance to the mine, two unresolved high-interest kimberlite float occurrences, five unresolved kimberlite indicator dispersion trains, and a number of untested geophysical targets.
In February Shear approved C$4.6 million for a phase 1 work plan for exploration and development at Jericho in 2011.
In July, the company began diamond recovery and plant feed test along with pit dewatering at the mine.
It also commenced exploration of the Carat property after staking another 34 claims covering 31,263 hectares (77,250 acres).
Working in partnership with Mineral Services Canada of North Vancouver, B.C., Shear's in-house geology team also completed a study that defined 20 indicator mineral dispersion trains in and around Jericho that are not easily explained by known kimberlites and compelling evidence of potentially undiscovered kimberlites on the property.
In addition, the company drilled five holes, of which four intersected kimberlite outside the current geological model, suggesting upside tonnage potential.
Shear also considered a brief 2011 summer exploration program including prospecting, collection of additional till samples, ground geophysical surveying, and data compilation with interpretation. Once full results have been interpreted, drill targets will be prioritized for future drilling.
By June 30, Shear had incurred C$3.5 million in total exploration expenses, including work on the Tak Project (formerly "Rockinghorse") in Northwest Territories.
In March, the company reported results from processing a mini-bulk sample from the Anuri kimberlite at the Tak project in which it holds a 75 percent interest in partnership with Rio Tinto Ltd. An overall sample grade of 0.35 cpt was recovered from 25.6 dry metric tons of Anuri kimberlite using a 0.85-millimeter bottom cut-off confirmed historic results.
The diamond results are from 17 HQ core holes drilled at the Anuri kimberlite in 2007 by previous operators, and historic results suggest a recoverable diamond grade between 0.24 cpt and 0.44 cpt, based on modeled diamond size/frequency distributions of much smaller samples treated by caustic fusion.
Shear said future plans for the Anuri kimberlite will be assessed after the diamonds are examined by Rio Tinto.
The junior also indicated that it might conduct a summer/fall prospecting program on its North Slave Properties and a possible late season field prospecting program in conjunction with ongoing camp maintenance at the Churchill Diamond Project in Nunavut.
Shear is exploring the Churchill project in a 62-38 percent partnership with Stornoway Diamond Corp. The junior said it had no exploration plans for its other properties in 2011.
Cash and short-term deposits: C$5.06 million (at May 31, 2011)
Working capital: C$3.3 million (at May 31, 2011)
Market Capitalization: C$14.23 million (at Sept. 2, 2011)
Suite 220, 17010 - 103rd Ave.
Edmonton, AB, Canada T5S 1K7
Tel: 780-435-0045 Fax: 780- 428-3476
Reader Comments(0)