MINING NEWS: Metalex finds diamond indicators

B.C. based Metalex Ventures Ltd. said in mid-March that it has two samples, collected 430 meters apart, that contain “exceptional concentrations” of fresh diamond indicator minerals in glacial till at its West Greenland project.

The company said in a press release that the “G10 garnets from both samples plot in the same part of the Cr(2)O(3)-CaO diamond stability field as some G10 garnets that occur as inclusions within diamonds at the Finsch, Bultfontein, Roberts Victor, and several other African mines, as well as from G10 garnets from commercial diamond deposits in Russia, Venezuela, Namibia and Sable (Ekati) Canada.”

Most of the G10 garnets are enclosed, or partially enclosed, in friable kelyphite alteration rims or have angular broken near-source textures.

“About 110 picroilmenite microprobe analyses from each sample indicate that the two samples are likely derived from the same kimberlite source and that conditions within this source allowed good preservation of any contained diamonds,” Metalex said. The near-source surface textures and distribution of anomalous kimberlite indicator count samples “suggest that the source of the diamond indicator minerals lies within, or at the edge, of a large ice covered lake on a Metalex claim.”

Field work aimed at discovering the kimberlite source was to start in late March and be done before the ice melts in May.

Metalex has a 100 percent interest in the claims. Cantex Mine Development has an option to buy a 25 percent contributing interest for $120,000 between Jan. 1, 2008 and Jan. 20, 2008. Metalex has given Kel-Ex Development, owned by Dr. Charles Fipke, a 10 percent net carried interest in return for operating the project.

—Mining News