from stockwatch 2023-09-27 17:38 ET - Market Summary
by Will Purcell
The diamond and specialty minerals stocks box score for Wednesday was a sad 56-131-123 as the TSX Venture Exchange fell seven points to 550. Grenville Thomas and Ken Armstrong's North Arrow Minerals Inc. (NAR), which got as high as 12.5 cents in late July thanks to encouraging news about its lithium plays in Canada's North, lost one-half cent to 4.5 cents on 176,000 shares today. It has been a tough two months, but North Arrow appears committed to its new lithium focus, leaving the company's diamond projects on idle.
The retreat from diamonds can be tracked in North Arrow's end-of-release boilerplate, where a company typically tells the hardiest of readers what it is all "about." Until North Arrow acquired its first lithium project in late January, the company lead its boilerplate by cheering itself as a "Canadian-based exploration company focused on the identification and evaluation of diamond exploration opportunities in Canada."
North Arrow briefly shoehorned "lithium and" ahead of "diamond" in its spiel at the start of its lithium shift, but as that effort ramped up in late winter and into spring, the mention of diamonds sank ever lower in the boilerplate summary. Now, the company is "focused on the identification and evaluation of lithium and other exploration opportunities in Canada." Meanwhile, mention of diamonds is relegated to an afterthought comment "... also owns interests in ..." buried deep within the section.
And little wonder: The company's top diamond play, Naujaat in central Nunavut, is stalled at the planning stage for a big bulk sample. That test is needed to prove or kill the theory that the big Q1-4 kimberlite hosts enough fancy orange and yellow gems -- with sufficient sizes -- to support a mine. It was -- and still is -- an intriguing story, and North Arrow has a partner in Australia-based Burgundy Diamond Mines Ltd., but the cost of the test is expected to exceed $10-million.
For now, Mr. Armstrong, North Arrow's president and chief executive officer, and Mr. Thomas, chairman, see the company's lithium projects as offering more promotional bang for their hard-to-raise explorational bucks. Late last week, North Arrow applauded new assays from its MacKay Lake property, which returned up to 2.3 per cent lithium oxide in channel sampling of the MK1 pegmatite. (In August, grab sampling produced up to 3.74 per cent lithium oxide and the three other tests topped 2.4 per cent, perhaps accounting for the latest lack of investor enthusiasm.)
Five of seven other samples of the body yielded grades topping 1.15 per cent. This pegmatite occurs in the same geological setting as North Arrow's LDG property, 20 kilometres to the north, and Mr. Armstrong and his crew are eager to explore both former diamond properties for lithium again next year. Field programs continue at both properties and North Arrow expects more preliminary work to be completed ahead of drilling next spring.
North Arrow will also be making a renewed push at DeStaffany, near Yellowknife, where it has been sampling two old Moose pegmatites and some new finds. In August, channel sampling at Moose 1 produced several grades topping 1 per cent lithium oxide, including 1.86 per cent over three metres. Tests of Moose 2, as well as the new Moose 3 and Moose 4 bodies, also returned lithium. As with the MacKay and LDG properties, Mr. Armstrong touts plans for an initial drilling program next year.
As for Naujaat, North Arrow further degrades the project in its latest annual report, calling it one of "several legacy diamond properties" that it owns. "Legacy" seems fitting -- something that is a part of history, or which remains from an earlier time, and so one had best be patient, if not forgetful. Burgundy still touts its 40-per-cent interest in "the world-class Naujaat project," but that company is busy dealing with its recent acquisition of the Ekati mine. (Burgundy has declined to increase its Naujaat interest to 60 per cent by paying for the proposed 10,000-tonne bulk sample.)