North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. Aug. 23 said a three-hole, 1,474-meter drill program confirms the expansion potential of the CH-6 kimberlite at its Chidliak diamond project in Nunavut.

DD36, a 378-meter vertical hole, intersected kimberlite from 4.5 to 295.8 meters below surface, which is consistent with the current resource model for the CH-6 kimberlite.

DD38 cut 190.2 meters of typical olivine-rich CH-6 kimberlite from 277 to 442 meters below the surface, confirming previous results that added depth to the high-grade CH-6 kimberlite.

Drilled nearly vertically, DD39 ended in kimberlite at 532 meters below surface, confirming the kimberlite extends beyond 500 meters.

A preliminary economic assessment completed on Chidliak last summer envisions an open-pit diamond mine with a life of roughly 10 years.

Production would start at CH-6, which contains 4.64 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 2.45 carats per metric ton (11.39 million carats) diamond to a depth of 260 meters, followed by CH-7, a kimberlite with 5.99 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.85 c/t (4.23 million carats) diamonds to a depth of 240 meters.

An internal study indicates the potential to substantially enhance the economics of Chidliak by incorporating an underground mining operation below 260 meters at CH-6.

The company continues to test the potential depth extension of CH-6.

"This additional kimberlite material could provide a significant uplift to contained carats as we look to recalculate the resource later this year. In addition, hole DD39 confirms the high grade CH-6 pipe continues at depths below 500 meters and provides future resource expansion opportunities. Drilling continues and with these results we are confident that we will meet our objective this year of expanding the CH-6 resource below the 260 meters below surface base of the current inferred resource," said Peregrine President and CEO Tom Peregoodoff.

-SHANE LASLEY