New Nadina's Monument gains stature

2008-01-25 15:41 ET - Street Wire

by Will Purcell

Ellen Clements's New Nadina Explorations Ltd. has more diamond counts from its RIP kimberlite near Lac de Gras and the numbers warrant larger tests of the small pipes on the Monument property. The latest tallies show the RIP pipe holds modest quantities of diamonds, but its coarse size distribution profile provides encouragement for several small pipes on the play. The focus will be on finding bigger and better bodies, but New Nadina will need much larger tests of RIP and DD-17 to prove or kill the play.

The numbers

In a Jan. 24 press release, New Nadina revealed the diamond counts from the last 1,195 kilograms of kimberlite taken from RIP. The rock produced 542 diamonds larger than a 0.106-millimetre cut-off, or about 450 stones per tonne. The haul included 114 stones that clung to a 0.30-millimetre sieve and they account for 21 per cent of the parcel. The largest gem weighed 0.19 carat.

New Nadina offered nothing about the 13 other stones larger than a 0.85-millimetre sieve, but based on typical weights for individual sieves, another gem likely weighed about 0.08 carat and four others just under 0.03 carat each. The remaining eight stones probably contributed another 0.08 carat to the haul. Those numbers suggest a weight of about one-half carat for the largest diamonds, supporting a theoretical diamond content of about 0.4 carat per tonne.

The diamond recoveries suggest the 0.44-carat diamond recovered from RIP late last year was not a fluke. The first 1006.7 kilograms of kimberlite from RIP produced 413 diamonds, or about 410 stones per tonne. That haul included 91 diamonds larger than a 0.30-millimetre screen, and they accounted for 22 per cent of the parcel. The parcel included two stones that sat on a 1.18-millimetre mesh in addition to the one big gem, and seven others remained on a 0.85-millimetre sieve.

The size distribution of that parcel was encouraging, but in isolation the one big stone that remained on a 3.35-millimetre sieve seemed a stroke of good luck. The combined parcels now show the largest stone fits well on the cumulative size distribution curve.

In all, New Nadina now has 955 diamonds from 2.2 tonnes of RIP rock, or nearly 440 stones per tonne. The haul includes 205 gems larger than a 0.30-millimetre screen, or about 21.5 per cent of the parcel. The 24 diamonds larger than a 0.85-millimetre screen likely weighed about 1.3 carat, based on typical recoveries at other deposits, and that suggests an average diamond content of 0.6 carat per tonne.

The encouragement

The numbers support the expectations of Dr. Chris Jennings, who suggested the Monument pipes had the potential for grades above one-half carat per tonne when he bought a 22.11-per-cent interest in the project last year from his former company, SouthernEra Diamonds Inc.

As well, the numbers suggest New Nadina and its partners may have been unlucky with their tests of a second Monument pipe, DD-17. Approximately 2.14 tonnes of kimberlite from that body produced 964 diamonds, or 450 stones per tonne. The haul included 203 gems that sat on a 0.30-millimetre sieve, and they account for 21.5 per cent of the parcel.

The number of stones per tonne and the size distribution profile of DD-17 are a close match for RIP, but the former body did not yield any gems larger than the 1.7-millimetre sieve. That is not a surprise, as tiny samples of bodies with modest microdiamond counts and coarse size distribution curves generally require larger tests to yield adequate numbers of large diamonds. Although Monument will likely need more kimberlite to make a mine, the existing pipes now seem worth larger tests.

New Nadina closed up a penny to 14 cents Thursday on 92,000 shares.