$$$$$$ Sanatana. Close? Techies? $$$$$$
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Aug. 29, 2007)
Sanatana Diamonds Inc. ("Sanatana" or the "Company")
(TSX VENTURE:STA - News; AIM:SAN) is pleased to announce that it has received its Land Use Permit from the Sahtu Land and Water Board. This permit allows camp construction and drilling on our promising Greenhorn target.
The prime target at Greenhorn, designated G14, is a double lobed magnetic high. Close spaced sampling (nominal 300m spacing) around this target has demonstrated that it is at the head of a prominent indicator mineral train. The indicators include the full spectrum of minerals you would expect from a diamond bearing kimberlite; pyrope, eclogitic garnet, ilmenite, chromite, chrome diopside and olivine. Electron microprobe results show that many of these indicator minerals have chemistry consistent with diamond mineralization.
The G14 magnetic anomaly, measuring 160m by 100m lies in a till covered area of subdued topography. This will be the first drill target. Numerous other kimberlite targets exist in the area and these will also be the subject of drill testing.
Camp construction has begun and once complete drilling, with a small heli-portable diamond drill rig, will commence.
Meanwhile, Sanatana's summer sampling program has been completed with 1100 follow-up till samples taken. These samples are designed to enhance known indicator mineral anomalies around the region and test for indicator dispersion emanating from kimberlite-like magnetic targets in the Colville and Simpson areas. Ground geophysical crews have recently completed magnetic surveys in the Simpson area.
The Company initially acquired, in June 2004, approximately 20 million acres of permits that comprise its Mackenzie Project. The acquisition was based on the premise that a deep, cool, potentially diamondiferous craton existed under the project area. Management believes that this new discovery, on what the Company now calls the Mackenzie Craton, confirms this premise.
The Company has, after four years and some $20 million in exploration, consolidated its original 20 million acres of permits into about 5.9 million acres that have at least six discrete regions with anomalous geochemical indicator mineral concentrations. These regions are the Greenhorn, Simpson, Yeltea, Colville, Horton and Estabrook Projects.
Management believes that the Company's exploration strategy of controlling a large land area and using geochemical indicator mineral analysis to define probable kimberlite fields within that area, coupled with geophysics to define individual kimberlites, has now been proven.
The Dharma discovery, which occurs in the Greenhorn Project area, is a prominent geophysical anomaly at the head of a kimberlite indicator mineral anomaly. Kimberlites generally occur in fields of 30 or more and the Company has several drill ready targets in close proximity to Dharma. The likelihood of additional kimberlite in the Greenhorn Project area is supported by till sampling which shows a regional cloud of indicator minerals in the area. Geophysical surveys will begin in February 2008 to define additional drill targets with drill testing of targets commencing in early March 2008.
Results coming in from the 2007 summer sampling program have produced several new indicator mineral trains which are coupled with magnetic anomalies. The indicator mineral chemistry of these new targets is positive for diamonds. The new targets, some of which are already drill permitted, are from projects other than the Greenhorn. The Company plans to drill test these targets over the next 24 months.