Post by
barryb on Oct 10, 2015 3:22pm
from will purcell
Patrick Evans's Kennady Diamonds Inc. (KDI), unchanged at $3.10 on 6,000 shares, has closed the final tranche of its big private placement. All told, Kennedy sold 15.4 million regular shares at $2.75 and 1.69 flow-through shares at $3.40, a total of $48.1-million. Mr. Evans is now in the enviable position -- among his junior rivals at least -- of having enough cash to sustain two big exploration programs in 2016 and 2017 at Kennady North, 10 kilometres northeast of Gahcho Kue. Kennady Diamonds has big plans for the cash: a resource estimate, preliminary economic assessment and a 500-tonne bulk test of Kelvin next year, plus exploration drilling along Kelvin, Faraday, MZ, Doyle and some new kimberlite targets. Mr. Evans also plans a feasibility study and commence the permitting process for Kennady North in 2017. He is already talking about Kelvin and Faraday having up to 15 million tonnes of kimberlite, enough to support a mine of its own. Just two years ago the company's business plan was "to use diamondiferous kimberlites in the Kennady North area as mill feed for the Gahcho Kue diamond mine" because a stand-alone mine would be uneconomical. Much has changed in two years.