RE: Any news for the halt? News!!Richard Backman's eight-cent gem hunter, Iciena Ventures Inc., is getting set to drill targets on its Paranatinga property in Mato Grosso, Brazil. The company began working in the area several years ago through an arrangement with Chuck Fipke. Mr. Fipke has a gem search under way in the area just south of Iciena's property and his Metalex Ventures Ltd. is planning to drill features on that property. In the interests of efficiency, Mr. Fipke may elect to run both programs concurrently.
The plan
Iciena completed a $1.1-million (U.S.) exploration program on its Paranatinga project earlier this year and an airborne geophysical survey produced nearly 30 priority anomalies. Mr. Fipke will be operating the program through his private company, Kel-Ex Developments Ltd., but Iciena expects the partners will settle on a plan to test about six of the targets to start.
Iciena will be paying most of the bills, now that the company is expanding its interest in the Batovi portion of the project to 80 per cent from the current 20-per-cent interest. Mr. Fipke's Kel-Ex holds a 10-per-cent-carried interest. Cash is usually a worry for junior explorers on Mr. Fipke's projects, as the man credited with the discovery of the Ekati mine can be a big spender on his top plays, but Iciena believes its has an ample supply of cash to pay for the drilling.
Early this year, Iciena sold 35 million of its then 10-cent shares, putting $3.5-million into its coffers. The geophysical survey and associated expenses consumed about half of the cash since then, but the company still has about $1.8-million in the bank. That should be sufficient to keep Mr. Fipke's drillers busy into next year.
Mr. Fipke has apparently been trying to get two core rigs to handle the program, and Iciena and its partners had been hoping to start drilling on the best targets by August. Logistical issues delayed the start of the program, but the company is now hopeful the work can soon start.
The encouragement
Two diamond majors tried their luck in the area starting in the 1960s, but they failed to find much of interest and moved on. De Beers was the first arrival in the Paranatinga and Batovi regions, and it discovered about three dozen kimberlites, most of them in the area south of Iciena's property.
The diamond giant found a few diamonds in at least one of the pipes, and it recovered several alluvial gems, but nothing suggested the bodies were a credible source for the wealth of alluvial stones that local garimpeiros have been pulling from the river gravels in the region over the years.
Rio Tinto began hunting for a source in the area during the early 1990s and it discovered several new kimberlites. Once again, nothing in those finds pointed to a significant diamond grade and the company shifted its focus to other parts of Brazil.
Meanwhile, Mr. Fipke had been looking for Brazilian diamonds during the 1980s, before striking out on his own in Canada's North. He returned to the area several years ago and began collecting stream sediment samples. That work produced signs of geochemical encouragement that suggests some kimberlites that are still to be found could be significantly diamondiferous. Subsequent sampling narrowed the area of interest considerably, and Iciena thinks some of the prospective targets lie on its properties.
The results obtained by the local miners lend encouragement, as the largest gem found by a garimpeiro working in the area weighed over 300 carats. More recent finds weigh at least a few carats and the local diamond parcels generally command prices between $90 (U.S.) and $120 (U.S.) per carat.