from stockwatchwill purcell
Dermot Desmond's Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. (MPVD), up three cents to $3.22 on 68,000 shares, has found kimberlite near the three pipes that comprise the Gahcho Kue mine, 250 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife. The company began drilling in April with three objectives: to test possible extensions to the Hearne pipe, to test the corridor between the 5034 and Tuzo pipes and to test the Curie anomaly, between Tuzo and the small Tesla pipe.
Stewart Brown, the company's new president and chief executive officer, says that the drilling confirms that the North and South lobes of Hearne are connected by a kimberlite breccia. The rock, which is predominately kimberlite, was encountered at a depth of 40 metres and extends to at least 220 metres from surface, although the two holes that encountered the material yielded true widths of 27.3 and 40.9 metres respectively.
Hearne hosts a reserve of 5.5 million tonnes at 1.99 carats per tonne, making it the smallest of the three pipes. Much of the kimberlite is in the North pipe, which is 215 metres long and 55 metres wide near the surface, while the South pipe is just 90 metres in diameter. The South pipe is also modelled as having more granite dilution than the North pipe. The two bodies appeared to be about 25 metres apart at surface with the distance growing at depth, but that gap is apparently at least partially filled with the kimberlite breccia. That material will presumably add new carats to the mine plan, as the rock will be mined either as ore or waste.
Mountain Province and its majority co-venturer, De Beers Canada, have also drilled what appears to be kimberlitic material between the North lobe of the 5034 pipe and the small 5034 North pipe, perhaps 100 metres north of the main pipe. The North pipe is small and circular, and it appears to exist only at depth, suggesting it was not likely to be part of the mine plan. That could change, as the two companies have also encountered kimberlite beyond the North pipe, toward Tuzo. (There is also a 5034 South pipe. It is somewhat larger and lies nearer the surface, putting it within the pit shell at 5034.)
The new drilling at Curie suggests that it is a blow on the Dunn kimberlite sheet that runs northeastward a few hundred metres west of 5034 and Tuzo. That puts Curie roughly within the proposed pit wall for Tuzo, although at this stage, the vertical extent of the blow, and the Dunn sheet, remain unclear.
Mr. Brown says that he and his crew are encouraged by the success of the near-mine exploration program. The continued discovery of kimberlite beyond the existing resource base is a qualified "positive development toward our goal" of extending the defined mine life at Gahcho Kue. (The fudge is presumably the result of Mountain Province and De Beers not yet knowing whether the new kimberlite will be worth processing.)s