Kennady discovers third kimberlite at flagship Northwest Territories project

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Project developer Mountain Province Diamonds’ exploration spin-out Kennady Diamonds has discovered a third kimberlite body at the high-grade Faraday kimberlite cluster at the Kennady North project, in the Northwest Territories.

Operating contiguous to the Gahcho Kué diamond mine currently being developed by De Beers and Mountain Province, Kennady on Thursday reported that, after completing ice-based infill drilling at the Faraday 1 kimberlite, the core rig was moved about 80 m south-west where indications of the presence of volcaniclastic kimberlite were discovered during the winter of 2015.

The company had drilled three exploration holes during the past week, of which the latest hole intersected more than 55 m of kimberlite, an igneous rock named after the town of Kimberley, in South Africa, and best known for sometimes containing diamonds.

"Faraday 3 is the fourth kimberlite body that we have discovered at Kennady North over the past three years. Methodical exploration over the Kelvin-Faraday kimberlite corridor has increased our confidence in the potential for the discovery of further kimberlite bodies within the corridor," stated Kennady president and CEO Patrick Evans.

Kennady also announced that the Kelvin North Lobe bulk sampling programme was progressing well, with 13 of 26 planned large-diameter holes completed and more than 300 t of kimberlite recovered to date. The company planned to recover about 500 t, which was expected to result in the recovery of about 1 000 ct of diamonds, to be used for revenue modelling of the Kelvin North Lobe.

"To ensure that we achieve our target of at least 500 t, we've decided to keep one of the two reverse-circulation (RC) drill rigs on site following the closing of the ice road later this month. This will also provide us with the opportunity to commence the 2017 Faraday bulk sampling programme well ahead of the opening of the ice road next year,” added Evans.

Further, the company also reported the recovery of a second diamond in chip samples taken from the RC drilling. The diamond measured about 2 mm in maximum dimension.

Kennady aimed to identify a resource along the Kelvin–Faraday kimberlite corridor of between 13-million and 16-million tonnes at a grade of between 2 ct/t and 2.5 ct/t and also to identify new kimberlites outside of the corridor.

Kennady had successfully closed C$48-million of financing in October, which was expected to cover the company's activities through to 2017.