Mountain Province Diamonds Inc T.MPVD

Drilling results

[Macloud1]

May 23, 2018

TSX and NASDAQ: MPVD

 

Mountain Province Diamonds Completes the Kennady North

Winter Exploration Program

 

Toronto and New York, May 23, 2018 – Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. (“Mountain Province”, the “Company”) (TSX and NASDAQ: MPVD) today announces the completion of the winter drilling program at their Kennady North Project.  The 100%-owned Kennady North Project was recently acquired through a business combination with Kennady Diamonds Inc. (see news release dated April 13, 2018).

 

Three drill rigs have been active on the program, with one drill dedicated to delineation drilling on Faraday 2, a second drill dedicated to geotechnical drilling on the Faraday kimberlites, and the third drill testing exploration targets within the Kelvin-Faraday Corridor.  A total of 38 drill holes were completed for a program total of 6,826 metres.

 

Delineation drilling on the northwest extension of the Faraday 2 kimberlite has been completed.  The northwest extension, discovered in 2017, extends the Faraday 2 kimberlite by over 150 metres, with geologic units in the inferred resource continuing into the northwest extension (see Kennady Diamonds news releases dated September 11, 2017 and March 7, 2018).  The completed drilling is expected to advance the Faraday 2 pipe shell model to an inferred level of confidence.  Results since the last update (see Kennady Diamonds news release dated April 5, 2018) are summarized in Table 1 below.

 

Table 1: Faraday 2 2018 Delineation Drill Program

 

*Intercepts are not true widths. **Includes minor country rock intercepts.

 

See the appendix to the news release posted on the Company’s website for a plan-view drill hole map regarding the Faraday 2 delineation program.

 

Drill holes KDI-18-012 a&b were designed to test for continued extension of the Faraday 2 body along strike to the northwest.  Vertical hole 18-012a is interpreted to have intersected the marginal zone of the kimberlite as evidenced by the regular intervals of country rock gneiss interbedded within the kimberlite.  Hole 18-012b was drilled to the northwest along the projected strike of the body and did not intersect kimberlite, indicating that the pipe had changed orientation.  Angled drill hole 18-019 was subsequently drilled in a northeasterly direction and it clipped the bottom edge of the body, indicating that the pipe was now likely trending to the north.  Drill hole 18-013 deviated slightly and intersected the kimberlite off centre and across 28 metres compared to the 50 metre intervals achieved in adjacent delineation holes.  In comparison, drill hole 18-022 hit close to the target zone for a 44.75 metre kimberlite intercept.  Irrespective of minor deviations in some of the drill holes, the entry and exit pierce points will provide valuable information to advance the three-dimensional modeling of the pipe.

 

The final hole of the geotechnical program was completed on Faraday 1-3.  The hole was designed to test the geotechnical characteristics of the country rock for the purposes of open pit mine design and was not targeted to intersect kimberlite.  Results are summarised in Table 2 below.

 

Table 2: Faraday 1-3 Geotechnical Drilling

 

Dr. Tom McCandless, former director and qualified person for Kennady Diamonds and now technical advisor to Mountain Province, commented, “The goal of the Faraday geotechnical program was to complete drilling that will advance the Faraday kimberlites from a scoping-level to a pre-feasibility level of confidence in terms of geotechnical analysis. In this respect the program was very successful, with all of the planned drill holes and associated geotechnical surveys, ground water sampling and other required testwork completed.”

 

Since early April, a third drill rig has been dedicated to testing geophysically-defined exploration targets located in close proximity to the Faraday and Kelvin kimberlites.  A total of eight targets were tested with a total of seventeen drill holes.  Kimberlite has been intersected in all holes, consisting of kimberlite sheet complexes with the longest intercept being 6.85 metres of coherent kimberlite.  In every case the kimberlite sheets are intimately associated with greater zones of altered and brecciated country rock.

 

Table 3 below summarizes the results for exploration targets drill tested to date.

 

Table 3: Results for exploration targets tested under Faraday Lake

 

*Intercepts are not true widths. **Includes minor country rock intercepts.

 

Dr. McCandless further commented, “We conducted a systematic approach to drill testing exploration targets located in close proximity to the known Faraday and Kelvin kimberlites. While only kimberlite sheets were intersected, in each case the subtle geophysical anomalies we targeted were explained by intervals of highly altered and fractured country rock immediately adjacent to the kimberlite sheets.  Similarly fractured and altered country rock is associated with both the Kelvin and the Faraday pipes and we are confident that kimberlite pipes may be associated with some of the geophysical anomalies that remain to be tested.”

 

****

 

Mountain Province Diamonds is a 49% participant with De Beers Canada in the Gahcho Ku diamond mine located in Canada’s Northwest Territories. Gahcho Ku is the world’s largest new diamond mine, consisting of a cluster of four diamondiferous kimberlites, three of which are being developed and mined under the initial 12 year mine plan.

 

Qualified Person

The disclosure in this news release of scientific and technical information regarding Mountain Province’s mineral properties has been reviewed and approved by Dr. Tom McCandless, P.Geo., technical advisor to Mountain Province and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

 

Mountain Province Diamonds Inc.

David Whittle, Interim President and CEO

161 Bay Street, Suite 1410

Toronto, Ontario M5J 2S1

 

Phone: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]