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Properties | Lac de Gras - McKay Lake(Northwest Territories) - DIAMONDS |
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| Lac de Gras |
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General presentation of property
The Lac de Gras area diamond project is situated at Mackay Lake in the Northwest Territories, immediately south of the Diavik property and west of the DHK property. 150,000 acres was staked by ATW Resources Ltd. in 1992, which was owned by the following companies: Troymin Resources Corporation (20%) Almaden Resources Corporation (40%) and Williams Creek Explorations Limited (40%) in 1992.
A joint venture with Kennecott Canada Exploration Inc. was agreed to in 1992. Kennecott conducted geophysics and till sampling. One geophysical anomaly was drilled and proved to be a non- diamondiferous kimberlite pipe.
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The Lac de Gras area diamond project is situated at Mackay Lake in the Northwest Territories, immediately south of the Diavik property and west of the DHK property. 150,000 acres was staked by ATW Resources Ltd. in 1992, which was owned by the following companies: Troymin Resources Corporation (20%) Almaden Resources Corporation (40%) and Williams Creek Explorations Limited (40%) in 1992.
A joint venture with Kennecott Canada Exploration Inc. was agreed to in 1992. Kennecott conducted geophysics and till sampling. One geophysical anomaly was drilled and proved to be a non- diamondiferous kimberlite pipe.
Till sampling identified a separate diamond indicator mineral train trending down-ice (westerly) across the property easterly and in an up ice age glacial ice direction about 10 kilometres onto Mackay Lake. Kennecott conducted a drill program to find the source of this till anomaly in February 1998.
An RC drill was used to sample the till just off shore in Mackay Lake and fences of holes were drilled perpendicular to the paleo-ice direction.
On the lake, the last two lines of sonic and reverse circulation holes drilled to sample till under the lake are about five kilometres apart.
The most westerly line has four holes 100 metres apart that had elevated counts pyrope garnets (>5) in the basal till, one of these had a very high count of olivines (>50) with elevated values in three holes. Five kilometres east (and up ice direction), the next line of holes was essentially blank, indicating that a potential source for the diamond indicator minerals should be looked for between these two lines of holes.
Analyses were done at Kennecott's Thunder Bay laboratory which is an ISOGuide 25 facility. The barren kimberlite, found by Kennecott a few kilometres south of this indicator mineral train, could not have been the source for this train; however the fact that a kimberlite was found on the property is encouraging.
Mineral Resource Study summary
1992 : Lac de Gras is optioned to Kennecott.
March 1999 : The Company staked an additional 7 claims totalling 15,495 acres to further cover the area in the direction up-ice from the indicator mineral train. These claims were transferred to Kennecott to be part of the ATW agreement and Kennecott reimbursed all staking costs. Under the period of option to Kennecott the area of this indicator mineral train was never flown for airborne geophysics.
May 2001 : ATW and its shareholders have signed a letter of intent with Kennecott whereby their interest in the project will revert to ATW. Aber Resourcces Ltd. and SouthernEra Ltd. together have a 25% interest in the project obtained under terms of their original agreement with Kennecott. Subsequent to signing this letter of intent, ATW has flown the indicator mineral train discovered by Kennecott with airborne geophysics. The company has received the results of this survey, a map from which is shown below.
April 2002 : The drilling program is completed and no kimberlite was found. Further work is being planned for the property which may include sonic drilling and geophysics. Please see press release April 4th 2002.
April 2003 : A till sampling program has been completed.
March 2004 : A magnetic and electromagnetic geophysics program was completed in December 2003 and several subtle anomalies were identified. No drilling is contemplated this winter.
Specific Advantage of property
Next development phase
Indicator Mineral Chemistry
A Cr2O3-CaO diagram for kimberlitic garnets recovered in till samples (blue circles) and lake sediment till samples recovered from overburden drill hole 98RC12 (red squares) located within the same indicator mineral train. G9 G10 and low Cr2O3 garnet field boundaries are from Gurney, 1984*.
* Gurney, J.J., 1984. A correlation between garnets and diamonds. In: Glover, J.E., Harris, P.G. (Eds.), Kimberlite occurrence and origins: a Basis for Conceptual Models in Exploration. Geology Department and University Extension, University of Western Australia, Publication 8, 143-166.
(See graph in actual web site)
Result of Glacial Till Sampling for Indicator Minerals:
- Farthest 'up-ice' fence of overburden holes have no indicator minerals.
- Hatched area represents the expected source area for the kimberlite. This area was covered with airborne geophysics (see below).
- Black dots indicate sample sites legend indicates number of garnets per sample site, circles of lake indicate locations of overburden drill holes.
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