VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Explorer Kennady Diamonds has reported a maiden inferred resource for the Faraday kimberlites near the Gahcho Kué mine, in Canada’s Northwest Territories of more than 5.02-million carats.
The Toronto-headquartered company, the exploration spinout of Mountain Province Diamonds, on Tuesday reported a compliant inferred resource estimated at 3.27-million tonnes grading 1.54 ct/t. The value per carat was set at $98.
“The five-million-carat Faraday inferred resource builds upon our Kelvin indicated resource of 13.62-million carats, and represents another significant step in the advancement of our Kennady North project,” president and CEO Dr Rory Moore advised in a market update.
The resource estimate was based on data acquired up to the end of the winter 2017 bulk sampling programme, but does not include results from the 2017 summer drilling programme, Kennady said. The database used for the estimate includes 34 511 m of diamond drilling from 188 holes, 9.95 t of microdiamond samples, and 594.8 t acquired by reverse circulation drilling.
Kennady said more drill work is needed at the Faraday 1 kimberlite and two minor domains of Faraday 2 to define a compliant mineral resource.
“Continued upside potential exists for the Faraday resource from the additional strike added to Faraday 2 during our successful summer 2017 programme. This additional tonnage, together with that from Faraday 1 and the high-grade sheets associated with the Faraday 1-to-3 Complex have potential to materially increase the overall Faraday resource, particularly in view of the robust modelled diamond values obtained for the small sample of Faraday 1 of $108, $164 and $267/ct for the ‘low’, ‘base case’ and ‘high’ values respectively,” Moore said.
The company’s TSX-listed stock gained more than 4% on Tuesday, to change hands at C$3.05 apiece.