Dios plans more Quebec drilling
Dios Exploration Inc(C:DOS)
Shares Issued 34,333,839
Last Close5/12/2008 $0.29
Tuesday May 13 2008 - Street Wire
by Will Purcell
MarieJose Girard's Dios Exploration Inc. is planning drill programs on itsChibouki and 33 Carats diamond projects in Quebec this spring andsummer. The company is busy testing targets at Pontax and it thinksseveral features on the two other properties are equally promising.Uranium, not diamonds, powered the stock to a high of $1.20 early in2007, but the half-life of the promotion was short. With speculatorsnow treating the company's uranium news like radioactive waste, Dios iskeeping its diamond options open. Unfortunately, gems have been provinga tough sell to investors as well.
The plan
Dios had been planning to drill targets on Chiboukisince last year, but the company had problems finding a drill. Theproblem was the same at Pontax, but Dios finally got a drill turningthis spring. One Chibouki solution might be to move the drill over toChibouki once the Pontax tests are complete, but the latter play is afew hundred kilometres to the southeast.
Ms. Girard said Dios made plans for Chibouki last week. Thecompany is looking to find a second drill for Chibouki, with a crew torun it and a helicopter to ferry the men and machines around theproperty. Dios plans to drill about six targets this spring on theplay, which lies about 80 kilometres north of Chibougamau.
During the summer, Dios expects to have a larger drill programon its 33 Carats project, which contains several blocks of ground onthe fringe of the Renard project in the Otish Mountains region. Theproperty is a few hundred kilometres north of Chibouki and it lies muchfarther from any dots of civilization worthy of mention on a map.
Despite the remoteness of the Otish region, Dios expects itsdrilling costs will be lower at 33 Carats than at Chibouki. The companywill have access to an exploration camp and air transport to the siteis easier than to the Chibouki play. As a result, the costs of bothdrill programs may be comparable, but they still will not be cheap,with fuel-thirsty helicopters flitting about the bogs like bigdragonflies.
The encouragement
Dios picked up the Chibouki project a fewyears ago after it found some G-10 garnets among the array of indicatorminerals in its reconnaissance till samples. Ms. Girard said hercompany continues to collect surface tests and it is finding moreindicator mineral encouragement. Just how much and where, she is notsaying, lest a rival rush in and grab some of the action. (Dios'spresident may be worried unduly, given the lack of kimberlitediscoveries in the area and the woeful share prices of her rivals.)
Ms. Girard was chattier about the mineral chemistry of her 33Carats play five years ago, when De Beers Canada Inc. signed up as apartner for a year or two. The partners spent a few busy seasons andfound more indicator promise, but never any big kimberlites. De Beersthen quit, leaving Dios to ponder the possibility of finding a smallersource for the G-10s littering the ground.
A smaller pipe missed by De Beers would fit the model of theRenard project, where Stornoway Diamond Corp. is busy with aprefeasibility study of several smaller pipes and dikes. The projectcontains over 20 million carats and the diamond values at the two keypipes are running at $121 (U.S.) per carat.
With grades averaging about one carat per tonne, Renard-2 andRenard-3 will be the core of any Otish Mountains diamond mine.Stornoway also has the Renard-4 and Renard-65 pipes, and the Lynx andHibou dikes to cobble into a mine plan. A new find on Dios's play couldadd further, but so far, the only worthwhile discoveries are onStornoway's ground.
Dios closed up a cent to 29 cents Monday on 2,000 shares.
© 2008 Canjex Publishing Ltd.