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| | Wed Sep 26, 2007
Arctic Star plans to drill on Credit Lake
Publisher: Street Wire
Author: Will Purcell
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| | Patrick Power's Arctic Star Diamond Corp. wrapped up an auger drill program on its Credit Lake property in the Coppermine River area. The work has the company on the trail of some sparkling but still unexplained mineral chemistry. Previous exploration efforts on the property failed to produce any kimberlite discoveries, and Arctic Star's spring drilling program flopped. Nevertheless, the company is making plans for more drilling in a new area, based on its summer tests.
The plan
Mr. Power said Arctic Star went back to Credit Lake in mid-July and spent about a month collecting till samples, prospecting and drilling auger holes. The work gave the company another 800 till samples that are allowing it to outline a swath of kimberlite indicator minerals it calls the South Coppermine mineral train.
This spring, the company drilled nine holes into targets it believed occurred at the head of the South Coppermine swath. It tested two anomalies at the apparent head of a mineral train north of the Coppermine River. Most of the effort went to test targets near Phil's Lake, where previous sampling suggested the mineral grains originated. Unfortunately, the company found nothing in all 11 tests.
The South Coppermine mineral anomaly runs steadily for several kilometres in a northwestward direction away from the potential source region and is at least a few kilometres wide. Geophysics is of little use in the area, but the latest sampling helped and the recent auger drilling is offering some new clues.
Mr. Power said Arctic Star was now seeing signs the mineral train has a hidden kink near its head that suggests the source may lie farther to the southeast than previously thought. The company is also recovering mineral grains with bits of kimberlite attached, suggesting it is moving ever closer to the source pipe. Arctic Star now thinks the mineral train is coming from a swampy area, but the mucky ground conditions during the summer prevented it from drilling up samples in the area to prove the point. That leaves Arctic Star to lay plans for a new drilling program this winter or next spring that would allow it access to all the swamps and lakes in the region.
The company spent nearly $10-million on the Credit Lake project since it acquired the ground from Kennecott Canada Exploration Inc. in 2004. Based on the latest encouragement and Mr. Power's continued enthusiasm, Arctic Star will spend a few million more at Credit Lake next year.
The encouragement
The Credit Lake property straddles the Coppermine River in the area just west of Lac de Gras. The key targets lie in an area about 40 kilometres west-southwest of the Ekati diamond mine and 40 kilometres due west of the Diavik mine. That puts the property on the western fringe of the huge pipe cluster in the central Slave district. Finding indictor minerals in such an area is therefore no surprise. The ice movement during the last ice age was from the southeast to the northwest, so Arctic Star believes all its data show its indicators come from a nearby source.
It may need the kimberlite discovery that eluded two diamond majors to sell investors on the merits of Credit Lake. Kennecott put most of its exploration into geophysics, but had little luck because of the background noise. De Beers Canada Inc. worked the area but it apparently decided the mineral grains it was finding came from the rich pipes to the east.
The decisions to walk away were not unanimous. Buddy Doyle, a former Kennecott geologist and Arctic Star's vice-president of exploration, thinks the Credit Lake chemistry is potentially the best in Canada. As a result, the company will be busy in the area next year.
Arctic star closed up 1.5 cents to 15.5 cents Tuesday on 47,500 shares. |
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