These folks are having a buisy time
Peregrine prepares for summer Foxe hunt
2007-03-08 16:10 ET - Street Wire
by Will Purcell
Eric Friedland's Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. hopes to drill targets on Baffin Island this year. The company acquired three projects across the big island last month in a deal with BHP Billiton Diamonds Inc., and thinks it could develop enough targets to reach the drill stage by late this summer. Rival explorers are producing encouragement across the area.
The plan
Mr. Friedland said Peregrine had been working in the area with BHP for a number of years, quietly. The mining giant had properties across the Far North and the company expanded its land position early this year with successful permit applications.
BHP completed regional sampling programs and geophysics across its properties over the past few years, and Mr. Friedland said the results appeared promising. He said the indicator mineral work revealed some obvious mineral trains on the properties, along with some good geophysical targets.
BHP might seem less enthusiastic, as Peregrine acquires a 100-per-cent interest in the Foxe, Mirage and Chidliak projects, but just in case it is wildly successful, BHP retains an out, or rather, an in. The company can buy back a 65-per-cent interest in the hunts, by repaying Peregrine four times its exploration expenses, up to a maximum of $40-million.
The most advanced project lies about 700 kilometres northwest of Iqaluit, around Prince Charles Island and several other islands within northeastern Foxe basin. Peregrine already has more than a dozen magnetic targets outlined that will get a closer look this summer, and the company plans more mineral sampling in the area. Mr. Friedland said Peregrine expected to squeeze in a drill program following the preliminary work, most likely on Prince Charles Island.
Mr. Friedland said Peregrine had an indicator mineral train outlined on the Mirage project, which lies about 400 kilometres northwest of Iqaluit, on the southeastern coast of Foxe basin. More indicator mineral trains exist on the Chidliak property, about 100 kilometres northeast of Iqaluit. Peregrine plans more mineral sampling this summer to better define the heads of the trains.
The encouragement
The Baffin Island hunt has been attracting new interest over the past few years, helped by encouraging results across a wide area. The most advanced and closest diamond deposit lies on the Arctic mainland of Melville Peninsula, about 250 kilometres west of the Foxe property. Stornoway Diamond Corp. discovered a small kimberlite body on its Aviat play in 2002 and it now has several bodies that it thinks it could cobble together into a worthwhile mine.
The Aviat blows and sills are yielding mini-bulk grades ranging between one-half carat and one carat per tonne. Stornoway is planning significantly larger mini-bulk tests from several surface outcrops on the eastern part of its Aviat cluster this summer.
Pure Gold Minerals Inc. and De Beers Canada Inc. have two kimberlite discoveries on a big property about 300 kilometres northwest of Prince Charles Island. The partners recently tested small amounts of float from the Amon dike and recovered encouraging numbers and sizes of diamonds. The results suggest the Amon dike could have a hefty grade, although the size of the body remains worrisome.
The first kimberlite finds on Baffin lie farther to the northwest, and they also were significantly diamondiferous. Twin Mining Corp. completed the biggest test in the Far North so far, producing a grade of over one-quarter of a carat per tonne in the core of its Freightrain pipe. Diamondex Resources Ltd. is working on a property just to the east with a pipe having at least a comparable diamond potential.
Peregrine closed up four cents to $2.12 Wednesday on 101,200 shares.