Baffin Island’s not without challenges of climate and isolation.
An initial resource for the CH-7 kimberlite brings the Chidliak project’s inferred total to a near-surface 15.62 million carats, Peregrine Diamonds TSX:PGD announced May 5. CH-7 shows 4.99 million tonnes averaging 0.85 carats per tonne for 4.23 million carats of diamonds inferred. Last month the company reported a 33% carat increase for Chidliak’s CH-6 pipe, 15 kilometres northwest, for an inferred 4.64 million tonnes averaging 2.45 c/t for 11.39 million carats.
The 513,249-hectare Chidliak project sits on Nunavut’s Baffin Island, about 120 kilometres from the territorial capital of Iqaluit. A preliminary economic assessment for Phase I operations remains on track for late June.
Both resources used a bottom cutoff of 1.18 millimetres. CH-7’s resource reaches only 240 metres in depth, while that of CH-6 bottoms out at 260 metres. Both kimberlites remain open at depth.
Last March Peregrineannounced an Antwerp valuation of a 735.75-carat parcel of CH-7 stones showed a current average of $100 per carat, ranging from $73 to $154 per carat. The parcel’s modelled average was $114, ranging from $94 to $155. Modelled prices forecast amounts potentially obtained from a future mining operation. The independent study recommended $114 as CH-7’s base case valuation in the PEA.
The parcel’s eight largest diamonds ranged from 1.35 to 5.33 carats, with current average prices between $713 to $3,106 per carat.
A 2014 valuation for CH-6 showed an average $213 per carat and a modelled base case of $188, ranging from $162 to $236. The 1,013.5-carat parcel’s four largest gems weighed in at 8.87, 5.83, 4.62 and 4.11 carats, with respective prices of $4,076, $3,455, $2,900 and $2,633.
Peregrine holds three other projects in Nunavut, along with interests in Botswana and the Northwest Territories. The company’s 72.1%-owned DO-27 kimberlite in the NWT’s Lac de Gras camp holds a 2008 resource of 18.2 million carats indicated.
In January Peregrine pulled in $5.64 million from a rights offering announced at up to $7 million last November.
Read more at the original source: http://resourceclips.com/2016/05/05/peregrine-diamonds-releases-ch-7-maiden-resource-plans-june-pea-for-chidliak/
