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Unearthing a New Diamond Field in Canada

Stockhouse Editorial
0 Comments| September 28, 2018

 

After several quiet months of diligent work, Vancouver-based North Arrow Minerals Inc. (TSX: V.NAR, OTCQB: NHAWF, Click to enlargeForum) has come back with promising results for its diamond operations in Northern Canada.

In September 2018, NAR reported that an exploration drilling and till sampling program at its 100%-owned Mel Diamond Project is complete. Located in Nunavut roughly 20 kilometres from tidewater, work was conducted from an exploration camp established on the property, around 140 km south of Hamlets of Hall Beach and 210 km northeast of Naujaat.

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Click to enlarge.

Mel was a grassroots diamond discovery and this program represents the first-ever exploration drilling of this new kimberlite field and included a focus on a generation of new targets through till sampling and geophysical surveys.

Highlights, as listed in the Company’s recent news release:

  • Kimberlite intersected in five holes that reached their target depth;
  • 787.5 total metres of drilling completed in six holes;
  • Diamondiferous kimberlite ML8 extended by drilling to over 170m in strike length;
  • Discovery of kimberlite ML345, approximately 1.5 km south of ML8;
  • 224 kg of kimberlite collected from ML8 and presently undergoing microdiamond analysis;
  • Magnetic surveys completed over 14 ground grids;
  • Collection of 447 till samples to better define existing and new targets within the 56,075 ha property.

Stockhouse Editorial met up with Company CEO Ken Armstrong to talk about these results and what it means for North Arrow in the coming months.

This confirms that the Mel Project represents a new diamondiferous kimberlite field in Canada, can you elaborate how significant this is for investors?

It’s significance is that the discovery of a diamondiferous kimberlite field is a relatively rare occurrence. Over the last five years, five kimberlite fields have been found in Canada. Three were found by diamond mining companies – Rio Tinto, De Beers and Stornoway – and the other two were found by North Arrow – Pikoo in Saskatchewan and now Mel in Nunavut. So I think the significance for investors is the fact that North Arrow is the only junior explorer having success finding new kimberlite fields.


Please summarize the exploration work done at the project so far.

The other encouraging feature about the Mel kimberlite discoveries is that they have been made on the basis of a relatively modest amount of work. We identified the Mel area as prospective for diamonds in 2013 and conducted brief annual till sampling programs – each between 1 and 10 days long – to define and refine a target area, and culminating in the prospecting discovery of the ML8 kimberlite last fall. This summer’s drilling program is the first drilling in the area and has confirmed the discovery of at least two kimberlites – ML8 and ML345 – and we collected 447 tills samples which effectively doubles the number of samples collected on the project in the preceding 5 years.


How will results from these samples help define existing and new kimberlite indicator mineral anomalies ahead of the 2019 exploration season?

Well, the sampling effectively fills in some big gaps in our sample database and will provide complete coverage of the area lying between the kimberlite indicator mineral (KIM) train in the north part of the property – where ML8 and ML345 were discovered – and a cluster of positive KIM results in the southern project area where a kimberlite source has yet to be found. So we really think we should come up with some new KIM targets from the new sampling.


This project was announced late last year and has been providing results in a short amount of time, could it bypass Naujaat as a flagship for the Company?

Well it may seem short but as I mentioned its was five years of diligent sampling at Mel that led to the discovery last fall. With that said, it is still really early days at Mel. Further drilling is required at ML8 and ML345 and we have several other targets already identified that need to be tested in addition to any targets coming out of this summers sampling. Certainly if we can outline some sizable kimberlites with high diamond counts then Mel will become an even more important project for North Arrow. But our focus is to continually advance all of our projects as we believe they all have merit. Certainly Naujaat remains the most advanced at this time, being an large diamond inventory located on the ocean near the community of Naujaat.


There seems to be a lot of new discoveries yet to be made at Mel, when the next phase of work begins, what kind of work will you do and what more do you expect to find?

Well its tough to anticipate what we will find but I think its fair to say we certainly suspect there are more kimberlites to discover at the project. The southern KIM anomaly that I referred to earlier must be derived from a different source than the ML8 and ML345 kimberlites. Kimberlites typically occur in fields or clusters, which may range from 10’s to 100’s of bodies. The till sample results from this summer will be important in identifying target areas within the project then I would expect we will complete some further geophysics to try and define specific target areas ahead of continued drilling in 2019.

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Giant slave helicopter taking off from th Mel Project after dropping off the day's samples. Photo via North Arrow Minerals.

Is there a timetable for when you expect the Company to renew exploration drilling of these established, and new targets?

Well the first step will be to get results from the samples collected this summer. We expect some initial microdiamond results from ML8 within the next 4 weeks or so followed by till sample results, which we will use for planning next years field programs. Pending funding, I’d hope we are completing some geophysics this spring – say in April or May – and can get a good start on drilling by late June or so.


What has been the most challenging part of moving this project along through its exploration phase?

It’s actually gone quite smoothly over the years because we’ve been able to advance Mel while we have also been working at Naujaat. Closeness or proximity is relative in Nunavut but the two projects compliment each other very well.


Over the long term, please outline your vision for North Arrow Minerals for investors.

To make them buckets of money. North Arrow has taken a basket approach for accumulating quality diamond projects in Canada and we believe this should serve investors well. There are not many diamond evaluation projects in Canada at the moment – or the world for that matter – and North Arrow is not just evaluating existing projects like Naujaat, but is finding new ones like Mel and Pikoo. The diamond space does not have a lot of players and North Arrow is well positioned as the most active – and I believe most successful – junior company making new discoveries.

FULL DISCLOSURE: North Arrow Minerals Inc. is a paid client of Stockhouse Publishing.



 

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