Shore Gold Inc (C-SGF) - News Release
Shore Gold releases fourth set of Star recoveries
Shore Gold Inc SGF
Shares issued 43,138,000 Aug 11 2004 close $ 1.83
Thursday August 12 2004 News Release
Mr. Kenneth MacNeill reports
STAR DIAMOND PROJECT 8.1 CARAT DIAMOND RECOVERED IN 226 CARAT PARCEL
Shore Gold Inc. has released the fourth set of diamond recoveries from the Star kimberlite. These results are for six kimberlite batches of a total of approximately 80 kimberlite batches to 100 kimberlite batches that will be processed as part of the bulk sampling program on the Star diamond project, the aim of which is to recover a parcel of about 3,000 carats for valuation purposes. A total of 1,463 commercial-sized diamonds (greater than 1.18 millimetre square mesh screen), collectively weighing 223.6 carats, has been recovered from the treatment of 1,256 dry tonnes of kimberlite. Thirty-two diamonds greater than one carat have been recovered and the four largest stones are: 8.12, 7.85, 6.54 and 5.53 carats, respectively. In addition, 163 diamonds (2.6 carats) were recovered down to 0.85 millimetre square mesh. The colour of over 81 per cent of these diamonds has been classified as white, with a further 12 per cent classified as off-white.
These kimberlite batches have been mined from the Southeast drive (batches 15B, 16A, 16B, 17 and 19) and the North drive (batch 18) developed from the 235-metre shaft station, which is within the Early Joli Fou equivalent kimberlite. Results to date have shown that higher diamond grades are associated with the Early Joli Fou equivalent kimberlite than with the Late Joli Fou equivalent kimberlite. The relationships between these two kimberlites types are illustrated in cross sections available on the Shore Gold website: www.shoregold.com. To date, some 16,500 tonnes of kimberlite have been extracted from Star as part of the bulk sampling program.
Batches 8A, 8B, 8C, 8D and 8E (Shaft) and batch 20 (from 235-metre level) have all been processed on site and the concentrates dispatched to the sorting laboratory for final diamond recovery. Results from these batches are pending. All batches processed to date are classified as crater facies volcaniclastic kimberlites.
Kimberlite processed and diamond results for six sample batches are listed in the table below. Grades are expressed in carats per hundred tonnes (cpht).
Batch Location Dry
No. (m below surface) tonnes
15B 235 m Level: SE drive 255.07
16A 235 m Level: SE drive 133.72
16B 235 m Level: SE drive 158.51
17 235 m Level: SE drive 248.46
18 235 m Level: N drive 254.96
19 235 m Level: SE drive 205.56
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Total 1,256.28
Diamonds
Batch Number Total Grade Largest
No. of (carats) (cpht) stone
stones (carats)
15B 293 68.09 26.70 7.85
16A 167 33.63 25.15 8.12
16B 252 25.07 15.82 2.29
17 383 46.00 18.51 4.33
18 264 23.42 9.19 1.49
19 267 30.00 14.60 2.06
----- ------ ----- -----
Total 1,626 226.21 18.01
The four largest stones are: 8.12 (batch 16A, white), 7.85 (batch 15B, off-white), 6.54 (batch 15B, white) and 5.53 (batch 15B, yellow) carats, respectively. Fifteen diamonds exceed two carats and 32 diamonds exceed one carat, of which 21 are white, four are off-white, four are brown, two are yellow and one is grey. A total of 73 diamonds exceed 0.5 carat. Over 81 per cent of the total diamond parcel is classified white in colour, with a further 12 per cent classified as off-white. The diamond parcel includes 11 yellow, two pink and eight amber stones. Over 98 per cent of the carat weight of this parcel occurs in diamonds greater than 1.18 millimetre square mesh.
Senior vice-president exploration, George Read, states: "The samples processed to date have produced a significant number of large diamonds. The abundance of large, quality stones in the Star diamond population will have a highly positive affect on the economics of the Star kimberlite."
The diamond recovery procedure includes on site processing of kimberlite through the modular dense media separator (DMS), after which DMS concentrates are batch fed through an X-ray flow-sort. In order to ensure the recovery of low luminosity diamonds, the flow-sort tailings are processed over a grease table. Flow-sort and grease table concentrates are transported by a secure carrier to SGS Lakefield Research for final diamond recovery. The SGS Lakefield Research process includes drying, screening, magnetic separation, manual sorting and diamond weighing and description. SGS Lakefield Research is accredited to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard by the Standards Council of Canada as a testing laboratory for specific tests.
Senior vice-president exploration, George Read, professional geoscientist in the provinces of Saskatchewan and British Columbia, is the qualified person responsible for the verification and quality assurance of analytical results.
The Star diamond project is designed to recover a parcel of at least 3,000 carats of diamonds to enable an accurate valuation of the stones. Up to 25,000 tonnes of kimberlite will be recovered from the shaft and drifts and processed on site to produce this diamond parcel.
AI
