A junior miner said Monday that drilling has uncovered three new occurrences of kimberlite – rock in which diamonds form – at a diamond deposit near Deschambault Lake.
Vancouver-based North Arrow Minerals said the discoveries came at its promising Pikoo Diamond Project.
“The 2015 winter drilling program was a success and has confirmed the Pikoo project’s potential for multiple diamondiferous kimberlite discoveries,” Ken Armstrong, president and CEO of North Arrow, said in a news release.
North Arrow began exploring the Pikoo site in 2013, finding kimberlite in a target known as PK150 during its first drill campaign.
The company said PK150 returned a promising sample grade of 1.34 carats per tonne for diamonds greater than
0.85 mm.
Now Armstrong said there’s more good news.
“The discovery of an extensive zone of weakly magnetic kimberlite at PK150 has not only increased the size of the body, but also opens up possibilities for new kimberlite targets within the project,” he said in the release.
Armstrong said drill sample interpretations are underway to give North Arrow a clearer picture of the deposit.
During its 2015 exploration program, North Arrow drilled 24 holes. Drilling tested kimberlite discoveries from 2013 and new targets defined by sampling programs in 2014.
The most significant kimberlite discovery of the latest exploration program is PK314, which North Arrow said was tested by four drill holes with kimberlite intercepts of
38.5 metres.
“The discovery of PK314 is important for a number of reasons,” said Armstrong, “not least of which is its location immediately up ice from a kimberlite indicator mineral anomaly…”
Exploration at the Pikoo site is being conducted with Stornoway Diamond Corp. under a joint venture agreement with North Arrow.
North Arrow first said it had recovered diamonds from Pikoo in November 2013.
Over 95 per cent of the diamonds were described as intact, white octahedrons and aggregates – making them suitable for gem use.
That was almost five times the global average for diamond finds, 20 per cent, according to the Prince Albert Daily Herald.
At the time, Armstong said the discovery represented “an exceptional result” and established the Deschambault Lake region as “a new diamond district in Canada.”
Pikoo is located about 10 km north of Deschambault Lake, a northern Saskatchewan reserve 140 km from Flin Flon.
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