Arctic Blue Diamonds Ltd, a private NWT diamond company, announced the acquisition of an 89.7 percent interest in the WO Diamond Project, which hosts the large, high-grade DO27 kimberlite. A 72.1 percent interest was acquired from Peregrine Diamonds Ltd., a subsidiary of De Beers Canada Inc, and a further 17.6 percent interest was acquired from Archon Minerals Ltd.
Arctic Blue is part of the Arctic Blue Group, which includes Arctic Blue LLC, an online diamond jewelry retailer offering a large selection of Canadian fluorescent diamonds on arcticblue.com. As operator of the WO Joint Venture, Arctic Blue holds the diamond marketing rights of future diamond production.
The WO Project encompasses eight mining leases covering 5,815 hectares located approx. 11 kilometers (km) off the seasonal ice road, 23km from the Diavik Diamond Mine and 53km from the Ekati Diamond Mine.
DO27 is one of the largest diamond-bearing kimberlites in Canada. The pipe has a surface area of approx. 9 hectares and lies below a shallow lake with an area of approx. 1 square km and an average depth of approx. 4 meters (m). By comparison, all the kimberlites mined at the Diavik Diamond Mine have surface areas less than 2 hectares, and most of the kimberlites at the Ekati Diamond Mine have surface areas less than 3 hectares.
Extensive delineation and resource drilling has been undertaken at DO27, including 114 core holes (24,185m) and 46 large diameter reverse circulation holes (8,840m). DO27 has been explored in detail to a depth of approx. 350m and remains open further to depth.
At depth, beneath the Indicated Mineral Resource, an additional 6.5-8.5 million tonnes of kimberlite grading in the range of 0.8-1.0 carats per tonnes (cpt) represents a target for further exploration. The potential quantity and grade of this target is conceptual in nature. Further resource drilling will be required to define an expanded mineral resource. It is uncertain whether additional exploration will result in the target being delineated as a mineral resource.
Arctic Blue Executive Chair Patrick Evans commented: “As some of the existing diamond mines approach the end of their economic lives, DO27 offers the opportunity to extend the life of the existing diamond plants by producing a very high-grade diamond concentrate of over 80 carats per tonne suitable for shipment to existing diamond recovery facilities, or alternatively to a purpose-built facility in Yellowknife.”
Mr. Evans added: “The extremely soft nature of the DO27 ore also opens the potential for the deployment of Underwater Remote Mining (URM) technology. Kimberlites with soft, low-density ore can be mined most efficiently using URM systems. Besides offering exceptionally low capital and operating cost opportunities, URM is the most sustainable form of mining, with minimal impact on the environment.”
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