Mining News: Northern Neighbors: Maiden Kelvin resource tops 13.6 million carats

Kennady Diamonds Inc. Dec. 12 published a maiden resource estimate for the Kelvin kimberlite at its Kennady North diamond project in Northwest Territories. According to this inaugural calculation, the Kelvin kimberlite hosts an indicated resource of 13.62 million carats of diamonds contained in 8.5 million metric tons of kimberlite averaging 1.6 carats per metric ton and an average value of US$63 per carat. Kennady said this resource was determined through the collective efforts of Aurora Geosciences Ltd., Mineral Services Canada Inc., SRK Consulting Inc., and JDS Energy and Mining Inc. "Our resource announcement represents the culmination of a focused evaluation program that was intensified over the past two years. The internal geology and diamond distribution within Kelvin are now so well-constrained that our model meets the stringent requirements to qualify as an indicated resource,” said Kennady Diamonds President and CEO Rory Moore. The database used to evaluate Kelvin included 40,041 meters of core drilling from 175 holes, 20.23 metric tons of microdiamond samples, an initial 44.8-metric-ton mini-bulk sample, and two larger bulk samples totaling 1,067 metric tons of kimberlite. This database was accumulated from work programs carried out by the Kennady North team since 2012. “I congratulate our team in taking Kelvin from discovery to a 13-million carat indicated resource in the first four years of our company; quite possibly a record timeframe in the history of Canadian diamond exploration," added Rory.

-Shane Lasley