Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. discovered eight kimberlites at the Chidliak Project. The kimberlites were discovered during Peregrine Diamonds Ltd’s exploration of diamond deposits in the Canadian Arctic alongside BHP Billiton Ltd. The Vancouver based Peregrine noted that the price of drilling and rock sampling in this area, Baffin Island, will increase from $13.5 million to $15.3 million in this year alone. It is believed by John Kaiser, publisher of Kaiser Bottom-Fish Online, a mining industry newsletter, that Chidliak, which is located more than 4,000 kilometers north of Ottawa, is a great new discovery and will yield a large amount of loose diamonds.
This summer’s exploration was intended for the purpose of discovering new kimberlites. This endeavor has recently discovered eight new ones, six of which were located on the surface and two located by drilling. With this sort of success it is no surprise that BHP is financially supporting the exploration in hopes of obtaining a majority stake in Chidliak, as the financial outcome will be very beneficial for them in the long run. BHP will consider working towards gaining 58% of the ownership, but that won’t be discussed until later on this year.
Peregrine is also striving for a mine in Chidliak and, according to Brooke Clements, their president, already have a good chance for a mine. It is now a matter of finding out if their mine will size up to the BHP mine that has already been established. These ongoing projects and discoveries in Chidliak have confirmed to Brooke Clements that the exploration in Chidliak has started well with room for improvement. Clements went on stating that the recent discoveries prove the value of this area and their overall potential to yield large quantities of diamonds in the future. Clements believes that the experience gained from recent exploration will result in further advancements as well as the increase of exploration will result in exponential diamond finds in Chidliak and beyond.
The eight new kimberlites have brought the total number discovered during the duration of this exploration to 26. CH-19, located farthest south, extends approximately 60 kilometers in a northern direction and 40 kilometers in the eastern direction. CH-21is located roughly five kilometers from CH -19 and CH-23 through CH-26 are positioned relatively close to one another on the eastern portion of the Project. The kimberlite at CH-20 is considered similar to that of CH-6 and Ch-10. Finally, Ch-22 is considered to be a magmatic kimberlite. The samples from these kimberlite regions are all being sent to Saskatchewan Research Council for diamond examination.
It is obvious that the exploration taking place at the Chidliak Project has been quite successful thus far. The 26 kimberlites discovered there is great evidence that there is a good deal of diamonds to offset the costs of the drilling occurring at Chidliak. Peregrine Chief Executive Officer Eric Friedland is confident that the future diamonds that will be discovered will ultimately make up for the development costs.