Expanding Kennady North

Kennady Diamonds Inc. Aug. 4 reported that the 3,000-meter summer drill program continues to expand the Faraday 2 kimberlite at its Kennady North diamond project in Nunavut.

"We are pleased to continue our success from last fall with the exploration of the Faraday 2 kimberlite, with all three holes returning significant and consistent kimberlite intercepts. The results suggest that Faraday 2 is maintaining a constant depth and a significant volume as it tracks in a WNW direction away from Faraday Lake. In a mining scenario this is an optimum orientation for the Faraday 2 body," said Kennady Diamonds President and CEO Rory Moore.

In May, Kennady reported the recovery of 737.6 carats of diamonds from a 262.6 metric ton sample collected from Faraday 2 during the company's winter program, for an average grade of 2.81 carats per metric ton.

The largest stone in this sample was a 4.72 carat white/colorless octahedron with minor inclusions.

The company also drilled a geotechnical hole to collect data for a pre-feasibility study of Kelvin, the most advanced kimberlite on the Kennady North property.

"While intersecting kimberlite at Kelvin was not the primary goal, it is worth noting that the kimberlite intersection is better than predicted from the current geological model," Moore commented on the geotechnical hole. "In addition, over seven meters of coherent kimberlite was intersected past the main intercept, representing three kimberlite sheets each over two meters in width. Although this sheet complex is not currently considered in the Kelvin resource, a significant part of it will be processed in an open pit mining scenario, which is accretive to the overall project economics."

The Kelvin kimberlite hosts an indicated resource of 13.62 million carats of diamonds contained in 8.5 million metric tons of kimberlite averaging 1.6 carats per metric ton and an average value of US$63 per carat, according to a calculation completed late in 2016.

Once Faraday 2 drilling is complete, the rig will be moved to the Faraday 1-3 complex where at least one hole will test the connection at depth between the Faraday 1 and 3 kimberlites.

In June, Kennady reported the recovery of 460.5 carats of commercial size diamonds from 76.4 metric tons of material collected from Faraday 3 kimberlite during the winter program, for a sample grade of 1.67 carats per metric ton.

A total of 26 diamonds of one carat or greater were recovered from this sample, including a 7.78 carat white octahedral diamond with no inclusions, the largest gem quality diamond discovered so far at Kennady North.

"Our systematic approach to exploring the Faraday kimberlites is adding significant value with each kimberlite intercept, as we build additional tonnage to add to the high-grade Kelvin diamond resource already defined on the Kennady North project," said Moore.

On Aug. 8, Kennady published a valuation of the Faraday 1, 2 and 3 kimberlites based on the diamonds recovered during the 2017 bulk sampling.

The 1,259.16 carats of commercial size diamonds recovered from the 2017 Faraday bulk sampling program averaged US$109 per carat, according to a calculation completed by WWW International Diamond Consultants.

All three kimberlite bodies hosted a population of high value white gem quality stones.

The most valuable of these was the 7.78 carat gem recovered from Faraday 3, valued at US$2,967 per carat.

Other high value stones include a 4.02 carat sawable octahedron from Faraday 3 valued at US$2,526 per carat; 3.08 carat sawable octahedron from Faraday 3 valued at US$1,966 per carat; 4.72 carat sawable octahedron from Faraday 2 valued at US$1,667 per carat; and 2.37 carat sawable diamond from Faraday 2 valued at US$1,502 per carat.

-SHANE LASLEY