Following up on last year's discovery of the diamond-bearing ML8 kimberlite at its Mel project in Nunavut, North Arrow Minerals (TSXV: NAR) completed the first ever exploration drilling campaign at the project.
Six holes totalling 787.5 metres were completed, with five intersecting kimberlite.
Drilling at ML8 extended its strike length to more than 170 metres. Three holes tested the kimberlite, intersecting up to 11.2 metres of coherent kimberlite mixed with cracked country rock. Lab results are pending.
Last fall, a 62.1-kg sample from ML8 yielded 23 diamonds larger than 0.106 mm, including one colourless diamond of 0.85 mm.
This year's program also unearthed a second kimberlite - ML345, about 1.5 km south of ML8. Both holes testing ML345 cut short, near-surface intercepts of kimberlite.
Further drilling is needed to test the target, which is located at the head of a kimberlite indicator mineral train with the highest indicator mineral counts at Mel to date.
"The drilling of kimberlites ML8 and ML345 has confirmed that the Mel Project represents a new diamondiferous kimberlite field in Canada," said North Arrow president and CEO Ken Armstrong.
The company also completed ground geophysical surveys and till sampling to generate new targets and define existing ones at the project, which is located 20 km from tidewater.
- This article was first published in the November 2018 issue of Diamonds in Canada.