SGS Open HouseGreat talks this afternoon at the SGS Open House. Andrew Williams of DeBeers gave a few numbers for some of the pipes on the JV ground:
121/122 = grade of 57 and 86 cpht
140/141 = various grades with numbers like 6, 6, 6, 3, 4 cpht
122 = grades like 5, 7, 10, 12 cpht
Phase 1 Drilling = 17 pipes drilled, 134 HQ holes
Phase 2 Drilling = 14 holes
All results pending.
Someone asked about them doing a shaft program and the answer was, “no plans for that, maybe in 3 years.
B. Kaarsgaard gave a talk about the geometry of the Star Kimberlite. Very informative. As an overview he stated that they have intersected thicker intersections of Pense, the volume of the Early Joli Fou has gone up and the volume of the Late Joli Fou has gone down.
The Cantuar was intersected in many holes to the N and NE of the shaft in previous holes, but the new holes are showing Cantuar well to the South of the shaft now, with a vent showing a thickness on the order of 200 m. The Cantuar kimb. is very different looking, very coarse grained. The old holes Star 7 & 8 were drilled in the area south of the shaft and they were ended at the bottom of the EJF and right on top of the Cantuar. The PFP holes have gone deeper and have found Cantuar below the EJF here.
The Pense kimb exists mostly in the NE sector of the Star and contains lots of mantle-derived xenoliths, also very coarse grained. It appears to be getting thicker toward the NE. Hole Star 38 contains very very coarse grained kimb and is loaded with mantle xenoliths. The inferred feeder vent for the Pense lies in the ravine area in an area where there was a gap in drilling data. So far they have intersected thicknesses on the order of 50 m of Pense kimb in places.
The Early Joli Fou feeder vent is near the shaft, and in this area the kimb has a distinctive look to it (also coarse grained). What is interesting is that far to the NE, on the far edges of the Star body, the EJF kimberlite looks the same, which is significant for diamond size distributions. A very thick unit in general, preserved because of several factors: during eruption the overlying sediments were blown out creating an “accumulation space” to hold the EJF deposits, and subsequent ring faulting and graben development helped to preserve the high reliefs. Also, basal surge deposits caused incised channels to form, one of which occurs S-SE of the shaft area. They are finding a thicker ‘tongue’ of EJF in this area that looks like a channel fill.
The Mid Joli Fou is a new unit and they believe the feeder for this unit lies just west of the Shore boundary on the JV land (intersected in hole Star 003). A lot of the old Late Joli Fou unit is now being assigned to the MJF unit, which has a different chemical signature and texture than the LJF unit. The LJF feeder may be to the west of the shaft, perhaps pipe 134.
The EJF, Pense and Cantuar are geochemically marked by a mantle component, whereas the LJF and MJF have a lot more crustal contamination. EJF has the highest macrodiamond grade due to the mantle contamination. All the Pense diamond info comes from distal units (farther away from the vent, hence less diamonds), so this grade may increase when they have more data coming near its vent. Felt strongly that the geometry of the Star kimberlite is resolvable and they have a good handle on diamond grades assoc. with each unit now.
George Read gave the talk for SGF. He gave a couple tables comparing numbers from last year at this time to this year: (first number is SGS 2004, second number is 2005)
Tonnes of kimbe processed: 18,000 35,000
Carats recoverd: 2400 5188
>1 carat diamonds: 308 711
Valuation: NA $135
# pipes: 7 76
Share Price: $2.50 $7.00
Market Capitilization: $33 million $1260 million
Cash: $33 million $276 million
Geologists on staff: 2 19
He stated that the valuation of $135/ct keeps growing and increasing in value worldwide and that $135 is now antiquated.
Highlights of development for the 1 year period prior to now:
UGBS completed
3050 carats recovered
$116 million financing, Newmont in for 9.9%
Prefeasibility study started
Merger with KRT
Cameco voting agreement
$120 million financing, Newmont in for 9.9%
Nearly all the drifting that has been done underground since the UGBS was completed has been to the S-SE of the shaft area.
Gross Value of the Star:
240 million tones
$21.20/tonne rock value
15.7 cpht grade
37.7 million carats
$5.1 billion resource value
Prefeasibility study to be completed by the end of 2007. End of feasibility study 2008, production by 2010.
PQ holes = 110 completed so far
Bauer Rigs = 72 holes scheduled, anticipate 10-12,000 tonnes of kimberlite from them. Both rigs running successfully right now.
Diamonds:
72% white
Largest stone = 19.67 ct
>5 ct = 43
>2 ct = 236
>1 ct = 711
Occasional FANCY yellows. Rare coated (low value), low proportion of boarts and browns.
JV side: 40 of 69 pipes are diamondiferous. 34 pipes have macros. Most work has been done on 140/141 and 122. 122 has a valuation of $133-147/ct.
Question at end: Any diamond counts from Cantuar feeder yet?
Answer: No, but one early drill hole returned 3 diamonds in a 20 kg sample, 2 were micros and 1 was macro, which was a good indication of what is to come. Very good looking kimberlite. 20 million tonnes of Pense kimb possible so far, on top of the 240 million already inferred.
Nearly twice as many diamonds were on display this year as last year, including some of the yellows.