(IDEX Online News) – Kennady Diamonds Inc. has announced initial diamond recovery results from the 2013 summer drill program at the 100 percent controlled Kennady North diamond project in Canada’s Northwest Territories.

 

Approximately 3,454 kilograms of kimberlite was recovered from 21 holes drilled at the Northwest Lobe of the Kelvin kimberlite. The kimberlite is being processed at the Geoanalytical Laboratories Diamond Services at the Saskatchewan Research Council, which is accredited to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard by the Standards Council of Canada as a testing laboratory for diamond analysis using caustic fusion. For processing purposes, the kimberlite has been divided into 15 batches, each weighing approximately 220 kilograms. 

 

The results for the first seven batches, totaling 1,527 kilograms, or approximately 40 percent of the total sample, returned a sample grade of 5.37 carats per tonne. The results for the remaining eight batches are expected to be released within the next two to three weeks.

 

Kennady Diamonds CEO Patrick Evans commented: “A sample grade of 5.37 carats per tonne is outstanding and confirms that the Kelvin kimberlite has a coarse diamond size distribution as well as the potential to host a high grade diamond resource. The 2013 winter drill program returned a sample grade of 8.13 carats per tonne, which included a 2.48-carat diamond. Adjusting for the impact of the 2.48-carat diamond, the explorer that there is a strong similarity between the 2013 winter sample grade and the sample grade of the first seven batches recovered from the 2013 summer program.”

 

A total of 154 commercial size diamonds were extracted from 1,527 kilograms of kimberlite from the Kelvin 2013 summer drill program. By comparison, 110 commercial size diamonds were recovered from approximately 1,000 kilograms from the Kelvin 2013 winter drill program.

 

While the 154 commercial size diamonds from the first seven batches have been recovered from the Northwest Lobe of the Kelvin kimberlite, the 110 commercial size diamonds recovered from the 2013 winter program came from sixteen different drill holes across the approximate 1 kilometer strike of the Kelvin kimberlite. Based on this, it is apparent that the Kelvin kimberlite hosts commercial size diamonds across the length and breadth of the kimberlite rather than being concentrated in particular areas.