Thursday, November 26, 2015

Chidliak Royalty Part V

There has been another update on the BC Legal site for November 6th.

To see the previous details on the court case, you can go to the last blog post -- Previous Royalty Post

Now, what is new?

There is a new Filing by the Defendant.

The filing is a Notice of Appointment or Change of Lawyer/Solicitor.

Here is a link to a sample template for the BC change of lawyer form -- Change of Lawyer

For some reason this document is only available via fax or mail for a cost of $10. The previous documents were available for instant download (for a cost).

The details of who and what changed is probably not too relevant. The why would be interesting to know.

Here are the details from the site:

Details for Document: 11 - Notice of Appointment or Change of Lawyer/Solicitor
Date Filed:     06Nov2015
Filing Parties
Defendant:     BHP BILLITON CANADA INC.
Defendant:     BHP BILLITON ROYALTY INVESTMENT PTY LTD.
Defendant:     SOUTH32 LIMITED

Nothing confirmed, nothing finalized...the royalty and lawyer fees are still in the courts hands.


Saturday, November 21, 2015

commercial sieve

Heading to the CH-7 bulk sample results, one can look at earlier micro caustic results and focus on the commercial sieves as a precursor to the upcoming results.

That would be the 0.85 mm sieve and more importantly the 1.18 mm sieve that Peregrine has chosen to go with for this bulk sample.

Here are some results of both caustic analysis and bulk sample analysis:

Highlighted the 0.85 mm sieve and a cumulative stone count for anything above 1.18 mm sieve. Also included is a one of the lower sieves 0.3 to 0.425 mm for reference.

Those results above are at various samples weights.
The data below shows the same data normalized to a 200 kg sample. This is the approximate weight of a standard caustic sample that Peregrine uses.





What does this tell us?

For one, it clearly shows how superior domain 5 is for ch-7. It has the highest stone count in the 3 sieves indicated. Clearly beats ch-6 micro information.

For two, it is interesting that the ch6 bulk (done at surface) comes in at 5.1 stones per 200 kg...yet the mini bulk that involved thick core drilling deeper underground came up with 5.6 stones per 200 kg on that commercial sieve. On top of that, the normal core drilling throughout the body came in at an average of 10.5 stones per 200 kg. This could mean that a 404 tonne scrap at surface may be under estimated the overall grade of ch-6. They had planned a large LDD RC drill hole this past winter, but weather conditions did not allow for this extra hole. The hole might have justified the theory that the data is showing.

For three, domain 4 is head to head with domain 3 in the early sieves and then doubles in the commercial sieve. It has a remarkable coarse distribution and could have some nice big stones in the bulk sample.

Bulk sample grade results for domain 2 through 5 will be coming out over the next 3 to 6 weeks.



Friday, November 20, 2015

Infrastructure Part II

Part I discussed the Deep water port in Iqaluit.

This part II is the second leg in infrastructure -- POWER

How will Chidliak power the construction and production of a minesite?

#1 - Diesel fuel - tried and trued, is a fossil fuel, and very expensive to ship and consume in the North. Cheaper if the deep water port get's constructed. Standard power for northern projects.

#2a - Hydro power - There have been many studies and projects undertaken to get build a hydro power plant in and around Iqaluit. This is very political and a very expensive project that has been put on the back burner many times. With an all season road from Iqaluit to Chidliak, it would make sense to put and maintain power lines to the site. This works very well if there is a hydro power plant to tap into. The government economics may work better once Chidliak has defined concrete and robust economics as Chidliak would be a steady customer of this power for a decade or more.

#2b - Hydro power from Greenland - Apparently Greenland already has 5 hydroelectric projects supplying 6 local towns. This article -- Greenland to Iqaluit shows the possibility of an underwater power cable linking greenland to Iqaluit. If an all-season road is built to Chidliak, it might make sense to route the power to the coast near Chidliak and then feed the power over road to Iqaluit. This is just another option to get Iqaluit power, but it could have significant usefulness for Chidliak as well. Here is a link to a PDF document with more details -- Greenland_2016

#3 - Alternatives

A - Solar Panels -- The Nunavut College in Iqaluit tested solar panels 20 years ago and the panels are still working at 75% capacity..which apparently is baffling to some of the scientists who work in this technology. There is a brand new test study happening in 2016 by the actual power corporation. It is using much more modern technology in this small test. The good news is that it is the power corporation doing the study, so if the results come out positively, there could be a reason to scale up and do a more enhanced pilot project.

Article on the test project -- Solar Panel Project

B - There has been an article in CIM and other magazines talking about a portable submarine that just dock at a small ocean port and the submarine generates nuclear power for where ever you put the power lines to.

C - Wind power generation - This has been engineered, tested and set up at Diavik for the last few years with success, but also major challenges. This is a fairly capital project to get going, so do you need a long term commitment to proceed with it.

Of the 3 alternatives, the one that probably has staying power for today's technology is C - Wind power. It will work in the summer and winter (not solar dependent) and is a proven technology..just not as proven at -40+ degree Celcius temperature.

The next major infrastructure hurdle for Chidliak is the road from Iqaluit to Chidliak.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Thesis Work

Chidliak has been involved with academic research help in the past.  A student from the University of Alberta did a nice paper on certain aspects of Chidliak.

This year, a new student from UBC (University of British Columbia), has started work on a thesis paper for Chidliak. Update -  a second student has also started.

Here are the details:

Student 1:

Link -- Research projects - UBC
Erica Tso
MSc Student (started January 2015)

Project Title: Chidliak peridotite xenoliths
Project Description: The project investigates petrography, mineral chemistry, modal mineralogy and geochemistry of peridite and pyroxenites xenoliths in the Chidliak kimberlite province, South Baffin Island

Student 2:

Link -- Research projects - UBC
Vedran Pobric
MSc Student (started September 2015)

Project Title: Eclogites of the Chidliak kimberlites
Project Description: Chidliak kimberlites (South Baffin Island) entrain fresh eclogite xenoliths . The project explores petrology, mineralogy and geochemistry of these rocks and finds the depth position of eclogites in the peridotitic lithological column of the Chidliak mantle.

UBC has a significant diamond exploration laboratory and associated equipment.
Chidliak material will get some good use out of that equipment as it has in the past with the University of Alberta equipment.

Saturday, November 7, 2015

CH7 - Nodules

We are fast approaching the bulk sample results for CH-7.

CH-7 is known to contain mantle nodules throughout.
The distribution is not known and confirmation that the nodules contain diamonds is unknown.



Chidliak does have known nodules throughout various kimberlites and CH-6 actually has tested diamonds in a few samples containing 10X the amount of diamonds.

Check out this page for mantle nodules at Chidliak -- Chidliak Mantle Nodules