by Will Purcell

Ellen Clements's New Nadina Explorations Ltd. issued a news release today about a new set of diamond counts from its Monument gem hunt and plans to be a busy driller this summer. The company continues to produce enough larger diamonds from small samples of kimberlite taken from a string of small bodies just south of Lac de Gras to warrant more work on the property.
The new numbers

New Nadina's new 272-stone parcel came from 640 kilograms of kimberlite core drilled up from the DD-17 pipe. In a press release issued July 12, the company said it recovered 50 diamonds larger than a 0.30-millimetre sieve. They account for about 18 per cent of the full parcel.

That suggests the DD-17 kimberlite could have a coarse size distribution and larger macros support that expectation. Seven of the diamonds were large enough to sit on a 0.85-millimetre sieve, a cut-off typically used in a small mini-bulk test. New Nadina did not say how much the stones weighed, but the dimensions of the seven-gem parcel suggest a total weight of approximately 0.15 carat. That figure would imply a crude mini-bulk diamond content of over 0.20 carat per tonne.

The result is an improvement over a test completed last year, when New Nadina processed 465 kilograms of DD-17 kimberlite and recovered 211 diamonds, using a similar 0.106-millimetre cut-off. The haul included 48 diamonds that sat on a 0.30-millimetre sieve, or about 23 per cent of the parcel. Just two stones remained on a 0.85-millimetre mesh, and they likely weighed just 0.02 carat in all. That difference points to the need for a larger test to adequately settle the grade question.

The plan

Ms. Clements said New Nadina and its partners would be busy drillers this summer. The company plans to start testing new targets by early August, and the work will continue until mid-September. The main targets under consideration occur along a line just south of the existing string of kimberlites, which Ms. Clements dubbed the String of Blue Pearls.

It is too soon to say if the new string will yield more kimberlite pearls, but the orientation of the line and its geological setting have Ms. Clements and her partners suitably enthused. Those partners include Dr. Chris Jennings, who recently bought out a 22.11-per-cent share held by SouthernEra Diamonds Ltd., and Dr. Stu Blusson's Archon Minerals Ltd., which holds a 20.4-per-cent share.

New Nadina and its partners are sufficiently intrigued that they set a new budget for the summer program that is thought to be approximately $1.5-million. Ms. Clements said that if the new targets yielded the expected new kimberlite finds, the amount spent could grow beyond the initial plan.

As well, New Nadina is intrigued by some features to the north of the String of Blue Pearls. One is an isolated target that offers the size potential lacking in the existing kimberlite discoveries. That target, which is just north of DD-17, has interested Dr. Blusson for several years. As well, the Monument partners hope to bring in a reverse-circulation drill later in the summer to test other targets on the northern part of the property.

The latest numbers confirm earlier suspicions that DD-17 and some of the old kimberlites found by Kennecott Canada Exploration Inc. during the 1990s might be of interest to smaller companies. A combined 1.63 tonnes of kimberlite from the String of Blue Pearls yielded roughly 0.4 carat in larger diamonds, suggesting a potential content of over one-quarter carat per tonne. Small samples typically understate the actual grade in coarse deposits, so Ms. Clements will undoubtedly be discussing plans for larger tests next year with her partners.

New Nadina closed down one-half cent to 22 cents Thursday on 8,000 shares.