CH31 Kimberlite (PHASE 2)

CH-31 Kimberlite

*Information in this current blog is based on information obtained up to mid 2018 and should be considered legacy at this time and should no longer be relied upon.*

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update August 2016 --> August 3, 2016 Technical Update PDF
(Page 26 and 27)

There are two words that currently describe CH-31. Large and clear.
At an approximate 4 hectare surface area, this pipe is one of the largest at Chidliak and because of that it will have one of the best stripping ratio's out of any of the pipes. The PDF indicates at a strip ratio of 3 to 1. That would put it at one of the lowest operating cost (maybe the lowest) of any of the potential pipes that squeeze into the Life of mine (LOM) for Chidliak.
Clear - Of 29 stones that landed on the 0.6 mm sieve or above, 28 of them are considered transparent. That could create some very coveted clear ice stones. It also has a very nice colour distribution that is apparent in most of the Chidliak data across the pipes. 25 of those 29 stones were either white/clear or off-white. Only 4 stones came out as Grey.

This initial data points to a valuation that could exceed CH-6's model.
The biggest question with CH-31 is the grade.

More work needs to be done on this brownfield pipe. A pipe with a grade of 0.5 cpt and a valuation of US$300 to 400 per carat generates a lot of profit margin. The question is whether the very high proportion of transparent and white/off-white stones can generate huge valuations to make up for a carat count that could be below 1 cpt.

More tonnage and more work needs to be done on CH-31 and it will get done.
With the kind of tonnage involved with CH-31, there could be justification to increase mill throughput and that would start shrinking the operating cost per tonne and enhance CH-31's margin.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Located within the Southern Focus Area CH-31 is one of the largest kimberlites discovered to date at Chidliak. Having a surface expression of over 3-hectares and thought to widen at depth. CH-31 represents the single largest potential for tonnage increase for the project to date.

The CH-31 kimberlite samples weighing in at a total of 5-tonnes, have returned a collective grade of 0.34cpt. The interesting thing to note is that the first 840kg sample taken yielded a 1.15c diamond while the subsequent 4.2t sample did not duplicate these findings.

Further sampling of this kimberlite is required in order to understand the carat per ton and carat value of this kimberlite as its sheer size(potentially 20-30million tonnes of kimberlite) could extend the mine life of the project after the sweetest plumbs(CH-6, CH-7, CH-44) are plucked.