The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News – December 1, 2018
A 95.21 gem quality diamond recovered this year at the Gahcho Kué Mine in Northwest Territories.
Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. Nov. 27 forecast that the Gahcho Kué Mine in Northwest Territories will produce between 6.6 million and 6.9 million carats of diamonds in 2019 and the company expects the diamond output from this operation to remain steady through 2021.
Owned by Mountain Province (49 percent) and De Beers Canada (51 percent), the Gahcho Kué Mine began commercial production in 2017.
Through the first nine months of 2018, the Gahcho Kué Mine produced 5.4 million carats of diamonds from 2.4 million metric tons of ore averaging 2.21 carats per ton diamonds, putting the operation on pace to exceed the company's guidance of 6.3 million to 6.6 million carats this year.
Based on an updated life of mine plan, Gahcho Kué is forecast to produce between 6.6 million and 6.9 million carats of diamonds in both 2019 and 2020, an average that is expected to increase to 6.8 million to 7.1 million in 2021.
"As we look forward to 2019 and beyond, our business plan demonstrates the quality of our core asset and the excellent work that the operations team has carried out over the past year; both in exceeding the targets for the current year, and building a stronger longer term business plan that should extend the life of mine beyond 2028," said Mountain Province Diamonds President and CEO Stuart Brown.
The results from the robust exploration program carried out this year will inform this long-range plan for Gahcho Kué.
In September, Mountain Province announced that drilling this year discovered additional kimberlite in the immediate vicinity of the mine. Known as Hearne, this new Kimberlite lies at depth between the 5034 and Tuzo kimberlites.
During the remainder of 2018 and into 2019, drilling will be undertaken to further delineate the extension of mineralization along these ore bodies.
In addition to the work aimed at expanding the resource on the Gahcho Kué joint venture property, Mountain Province will be conducting additional enhancement work at Kennady, a diamond property immediately adjacent to Gahcho Kué.
Mountain Province gained full ownership of this property when it acquired Kennady Diamonds Inc. earlier this year.
Prior to the buyout, Kennady Diamonds identified a series of diamond-rich kimberlites along a corridor that trends northeast from the Gahcho Kué property 3,000 meters onto the Kennady property.
Kelvin, the most advanced kimberlite on the Kennady North property, 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, according to a resource calculated at the end of 2016.
Late in 2017, Kennady reported a maiden inferred resource for the Faraday kimberlites, which are about 2,000 meters northeast of Kelvin, of 5.02 million carats of diamonds in 3.27 million metric tons of kimberlite averaging 1.54 carats per metric ton.
Mountain Province has submitted core from 2017 drilling at Faraday 2, one of two Kimberlite bodies identified so far in the Faraday area, to Saskatchewan Research Council for microdiamond recovery. The microdiamond data will be used to extend the inferred resource at Faraday 2, which will be reported in early 2019.
A winter 2019 drill program is also scheduled to test geophysical anomalies immediately southwest of the Gahcho Kué Mine.
–SHANE LASLEY
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