Seeking new kimberlites SW of Gahcho Kué

Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. Feb. 27 announced that it has begun a winter exploration program targeting new kimberlite prospects at Kennady North, a diamond property that borders the Gahcho Kué diamond mine property owned by Mountain Province (49 percent) and DeBeers Canada (51 percent).

Mountain Province gained full ownership of this property with the acquisition of Kennady Diamonds Inc. in 2018.

Prior to the buyout, Kennady Diamonds had 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.

Kennady had also identified two diamond bearing kimberlites southwest of Gahcho Kué.

The 2,000-meter winter drill program currently underway on the Kennady North property is testing several coincident indicator mineral and geophysical targets located west and southwest of the Hearne, a kimberlite that is part of the Gahcho Kué Mine.

Mountain Province identified the drill targets through the compilation of all the in-house data acquired since the start of the Kennady North project and proprietary data acquired from GGL Resources Inc. into a user-friendly GIS format. The combined database was then linked to a recently-completed glacial mapping and sampling program that incorporated a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) survey of the project area.

"In addition to the successful advancement of the Kelvin and Faraday Kimberlites, we are very pleased to have completed the compilation of all the regional exploration data into a consolidated database which will provide the basis for all future work on our wholly owned properties near the GK (Gahcho Kué) Mine," said Mountain Province Diamonds Vice President of Exploration Tom McCandless. "We have also augmented our database with new interpretations of the surficial geology in order to prioritize all historical, as well as newly acquired data."

Mountain Province had previously submitted core from drilling at Faraday 2, one of two kimberlite bodies in the Faraday area of the Kennady North property, to Saskatchewan Research Council for microdiamond analysis.

The 2.1 dry metric tons of kimberlite sample recovered from Faraday 2 contained a total of 9,218 diamonds. This includes 267 diamonds larger than 0.85 millimeters and weighing a total of 10.4 carats.

Mountain Province said these microdiamonds recovery results from core recovered in drilling carried out during 2017 and 2018 is what the company has come to expect from Faraday 2. This drilling extended the kimberlite by more than 150 meters to the northwest and the microdiamond analysis is providing information for an updated resource estimate that includes this extension.

"Our microdiamond results from the northwest extension of Faraday 2 are excellent but not unexpected, as kimberlites within the Kelvin-Faraday corridor exhibit a remarkable consistency of grade across internal lithologies," said Mountain Province Diamonds President and CEO Stuart Brown. "Our early indications are that the inclusion of the northwest extension into Faraday 2 will contribute substantially to the value of this resource within our Kennady portfolio."

Mountain Province and DeBeers Canada have entered a memorandum of understanding that outlines framework for incorporating Kennady North into the Gahcho Kué joint venture and are working on a definitive agreement to bring the neighboring property into the JV.

–SHANE LASLEY