Mining News: Largest Kennady North diamond found to date

Kennady Diamonds Inc. June 19 reported the recovery of a 7.78 carat white octahedral diamond with no inclusions from sampling of the Faraday 3 kimberlite at Kennady North, the largest gem quality diamond discovered so far at the project. A total of 460.5 carats of diamonds larger than 0.85 millimeters were recovered from 276.4 metric tons of material collected from Faraday 3 during the winter 2017 program, for a sample grade of 1.67 carats per metric ton. A total of 26 diamonds of one carat or greater were recovered, of which nine are gem quality and seven are "near gem" quality. The five largest diamonds recovered from the bulk sample are: 7.78 carat white/colorless octahedron with no inclusions; 4.02 carat white/colorless octahedron with minor inclusions; 3.41 carat off-white octahedron with minor inclusions; 3.38 carat off-white octahedron with noticeable inclusions; and 3.08 carat off-white octahedron with no inclusions. Since drilling was designed to sample the thickest parts of the pipe in order to maximize carats recovered for the purpose of resource definition, Kennady Diamonds cautions that the sample grade reported of the bulk sample may not be representative of the grade of the entire kimberlite pipe. “While the grade achieved for the Faraday 3 kimberlite is in line with expectations, the recovery of a high quality 7.78 carat gem from the sample is extremely exciting. This stone represents the largest diamond recovered from our bulk sampling activities on the project to date,” Kennady Diamonds President and CEO Rory Moore. "As with Faraday 2, the size distribution and quality characteristics of the Faraday 3 diamonds appear better than those recovered from Kelvin to date, with a notable trend of increased quality with diamond size and a higher incidence of well-formed crystals in the larger size fractions." Kennady North also reported the recovery of 76.8 carats of commercial size diamonds from a 26.37 metric ton sample collected from the Faraday 1 kimberlite, for a sample grade of 2.91 carats per metric ton. The five largest diamonds recovered from the Faraday 1 sample are: 3.21 carat white/colorless tetrahexahedron with noticeable inclusions; 2.35 carat off white translucent octahedron with no inclusions; 2.31 carat off white transparent octahedron with no inclusions; 1.94 carat brown transparent octahedral twin with noticeable inclusions; and 1.64 carat white/colorless tetrahexahedron with no inclusions. The Faraday 3 and Faraday 1 samples were collected during the winter 2017 program at Kennady North that was designed to further delineate both kimberlites as well as to recover sufficient carats from Faraday 3 for valuation. Kennady North is located about seven kilometers (4.5 miles) southwest of Gahcho Kué, the newest diamond mine in Northwest Territories. –SHANE LASLEY