Mountain Province Diamonds provides updated Mineral Resource Estimate for Faraday 2

The updated Inferred Mineral Resource includes 5.45 million carats of diamonds contained in 2.07 million t of kimberlite, with an overall grade of 2.63 carats per tonne and an average value of US$140 per carat. This represents a 49% increase in total tonnes and a 74% increase in total carats for the Faraday 2 kimberlite. The Inferred Mineral Resource at Faraday 2 has been updated to include the northwest extension, which was discovered in 2017 and extended the kimberlite by 150 m.

Most notably, the attributed average value per carat has increased to US$140 per carat; a 25% increase from the 2017 average values of US$112 per carat. This figure is derived from applying a base case value distribution model to models of recoverable (+1 mm) diamond size frequency distribution for each geological domain. The increase from the reported 2017 average diamond value reflects revised size frequency distribution models and a revised value distribution model for the Faraday 2 kimberlite. Some rounding error may occur in the values reported.

The updated resource was determined by Aurora Geosciences Ltd. and SRK Consulting Inc., who were engaged by the company to conduct the exercise. 

President and CEO for Mountain Province Stuart Brown commented: "The Faraday 2 project is one of three known kimberlites within our wholly owned exploration properties adjacent to the Gahcho Kué mine. As anticipated from our microdiamond results reported earlier this year, the inclusion of the northwest extension at Faraday 2 has greatly increased the value of this resource and at an average diamond value of US$140 per carat offers significant potential. We are very pleased with the results of this exploration program and view this as a positive step towards potentially extending our operations beyond the existing mine plan at Gahcho Kué."

Faraday 2 Updated Inferred Resource

The Faraday 2, Faraday 1 - 3, and Kelvin kimberlites are located approximately 10 km northeast of the Gahcho Kué mine. The Faraday 2 kimberlite is an irregularly shaped, inclined pipe-like body that has been drill delineated for over 600 m and remains open to the northwest. The body varies in width between 3 - 50 m and the vertical thickness ranges between 10 - 100 m in subcrop at the southeast end beneath Faraday Lake, to about 50 m thick at the furthest end of the northwest extension.

The full scope of the 2019 mineral resource update for Faraday 2 has incorporated the following components:

• An updated geology model that includes drill-delineation of the approximately 150 m northwest extension; 
• Additional microdiamond sampling of drill core and analysis of results from the northwest extension; 
• Revision of the diamond size frequency distributions and revised estimates of average diamond grade for the four major kimberlite domains within Faraday 2, based either on commercial-sized (>1mm) diamonds recovered from large diameter drilling, or on grade projections derived from corresponding microdiamond data; and, 
• Estimation of the average diamond value (US$ per carat) for each domain, based on the revised diamond size frequency distribution and a February 2019 re-pricing of the diamond parcels collected during 2016 and 2017 bulk sampling of Faraday 2 using large diameter reverse circulation drilling.

The geological model for Faraday 2 is based on drilling and bulk density data acquired to the end of 2018 that includes the northwest extension. The database is comprised of 22 183 m of core drilling from 102 drill holes and 3688 m of large diameter drilling from 31 RC drill holes. A total of 811 bulk density measurements were derived from drill core within Faraday 2, of which 250 are located within northwest extension. A total of 6.42 t of core was processed for microdiamonds, and 726.47 carats of +1 DTC sieve diamonds contained in 275.38 t of kimberlite recovered by large diameter drilling were used for grade and value determinations. The 2017 valuation of the +1DTC diamonds was updated by WWW International according to their February 2019 price book. An adjusted value distribution model was applied against the modelled size frequency distribution curves for each geological domain to derive a weighted average US$ per carat estimate for the Faraday 2 kimberlite. Due to the small quantity of carats available for grade and valuation estimates there is a high degree of uncertainty in these estimates; additional bulk sampling of Faraday 2 would increase the confidence in the diamond grade and value estimates.

SRK Consulting Inc. (Vancouver, B.C.) provided guidance on the evaluation programme at Faraday 2 and recently completed a comprehensive review of geological, microdiamond, bulk sampling, and valuation results in order to estimate an Inferred Mineral Resource for the Faraday 2 kimberlite.

The NI 43-101 Standards and Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy guidelines for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves stipulate that a Mineral Resource needs to have a "reasonable prospect of economic extraction of the specified ore". SRK concluded that the Faraday 2 kimberlite has reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction. Inferred Mineral Resources are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorised as Mineral Reserves. Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability.

The company will be filing an updated National Instrument (NI) 43-101 Technical Report covering the Faraday 2 Inferred Resource within 45 days of this news release.

 

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/finance-business/12042019/mountain-province-diamonds-provides-updated-mineral-resource-estimate-for-faraday-2/