Please find attached a recent Stockwatch
article that provides some details about the diamond project in which Mantle
Resources holds an 8.2 % interest. The property is located 50 kilometers
east-southeast of the producing Diavik diamond mine
in the Northwest Territories of Canada.
Should you have any questions or comments,
please contact us at (604) 684-2181 or by email at info@mantleresources.com.
Regards,
Corporate Communications
Mantle Resources Inc. (TSX.V: MTS; Frankfurt: A0F7E1)
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JV Plans New Afridi Tests
by Will
Purcell
Pamela Strand's Shear Minerals Ltd. expects a planning
session with its partners will result in a million-dollar drill program for the
Afridi project in the Northwest Territories.
Shear expected to be a busy driller last summer and fall, but was unable to get
a drill to the property before the end of the season. Nevertheless, preliminary
exploration did reveal some new targets for the old play, and Afridi will be a Shear priority this spring.
The plan
The 22,600-hectare Afridi
Lake
property is 50 kilometres east-southeast of the Diavik diamond mine and just 20 kilometres
east of the DO-27 project that Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. thinks could be economic
to mine. Earlier explorers turned up a few kimberlites
on Afridi and although the bodies yielded just modest
diamond tallies, Shear thinks the area deserves a closer look.
Ms. Strand said she first wanted to "see where
the partners are at," but Shear would like to drill at least 10 Afridi targets this year. The Edmonton-based geologist
should have little trouble getting her way, as Shear now holds a 58.2-per-cent
interest in the project. International Samuel Exploration Corp. holds a
25.4-per-cent interest, with Mantle Resources Inc.
and New World Resources Corp. each holding 8.2-per-cent portions.
The cost of drilling 10 or more targets at Afridi will likely cost at least $1-million. To control the
costs, Shear plans to coordinate its work with the efforts of some of its
rivals, using existing exploration camps as much as possible. Ms. Strand said
the drilling would take place in March and April, prior to the big push at
Churchill, the company's top project.
The
encouragement
In the early 1990s, the Afridi
region was at the core of the Slave diamond play and the project intrigued the
market for several years, as Intertech Minerals Corp.
and Kennecott Canada Exploration Inc. discovered a few kimberlites.
The bodies failed to deliver the diamond counts the market expected, and
interest quickly evaporated.
Ms. Strand would like to take a new look at some of
the old finds. The official diamond recoveries are a tough tout by any
standard, as several hundred kilograms of kimberlite
produced just 70 micros and just 10 of the gems were longer than 0.5 millimetre.
The longest gem measured just 1.2 millimetres in
length.
Nevertheless, Shear has some pictures of diamonds from
the play that indicate some larger diamonds were recovered from the Afridi kimberlites, including one
that appears longer than two millimetres. As a
result, the company thinks some key information disappeared over the years, as
explorers came and went.
Ms. Strand said that exploration was a challenge on
the property as sedimentary cover above the pipes hampered the use of
traditional geophysics and indictor mineral sampling was of little help as
well. As a result, Shear tried gravity surveys over the property and the data
are showing several intriguing new anomalies. The original discoveries also
showed up in the data, adding confidence to the new anomalies.
There is clearly potential for several new finds on Afridi, as extensive exploration efforts on the properties
immediately west and north produced dozens of kimberlites
within a 25-kilometre radius of Afridi. Further, a
large pipe lies 35 kilometres to the east, confirming
the huge Slave cluster of kimberlites extends east of
Shear's property.
Most of the bodies have just modest diamond counts,
but the DO-27 pipe has a grade of nearly one carat per tonne,
with a diamond value of over $50 (U.S.)
per carat. The large kimberlite complex once called Tli Kwi Cho confirms the geology
of the Afridi region was favourable
for diamonds.
Shear closed unchanged at 50 cents Wednesday on 74,500
shares.
� 2008 Canjex Publishing
LTD.
