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

North Arrow Minerals Inc. announced the discovery of diamonds at its Mel project in Nunavut.

A 62.1 kilogram sample of the ML-8 kimberlite at Mel returned 23 diamonds larger than the 0.106 millimeter sieve size, including a single, colo6less diamond larger than the 0.85 mm.

The ML-8 kimberlite discovery is coincident with an identified airborne magnetic geophysical anomaly that straddles the northern shoreline of a small lake on the property.

North Arrow said a number of additional geophysical targets, coincident with permissive topographic areas, have been identified near the up ice termination of unexplained kimberlite indicator mineral trains at Mel.

The company plans to drill these and ML-8 in 2018.

"As we thought possible, detailed prospecting of the well-defined KIM trains at Mel has led to the discovery of kimberlite and diamonds - the second discovery by North Arrow of a diamondiferous kimberlite field in Canada, said North Arrow President and CEO Ken Armstrong. "Delineation and exploration drilling of the ML-8 discovery and other identified targets is now planned for 2018 and will benefit from sharing logistics and infrastructure with North Arrow's ongoing evaluation of the Q1-4 kimberlite at the Naujaat diamond project."

Naujaat it located about 210 kilometers (130 miles) southwest of Mel.

-SHANE LASLEY