ragstoriches
20 years ago
Shear Drills Four New Kimberlites at Churchill Diamond Project
Tuesday September 14, 11:16 am ET
EDMONTON, ALBERTA--(CCNMatthews - Sept. 14, 2004) -
2005 program to test up to 20 targets
Shear Minerals Ltd. (SRM:TSXV), Stornoway Diamond Corporation (SWY:TSXV), and BHP Billiton Diamonds Inc. announced today that four new kimberlitic bodies have been discovered on the Churchill Diamond Project, Nunavut. This brings the total number of confirmed kimberlite occurrences on the project to 20.
This year's drill program, which commenced on August 22, is designed to test a variety of geophysical signatures within distinct corridors where high interest indicator minerals have been recovered in till samples. The kimberlites discovered on the property in 2003 were not located within these corridors.
"The fact that we continue to drill kimberlites at Churchill highlights the extent of the kimberlite cluster on the property," said Pamela Strand, President and CEO of Shear. "Shear is committed to drilling until the source of the outstanding indicator mineral chemistry on the property has been identified."
Target KD-597 is characterized by a roughly circular magnetic low anomaly approximately 125 meters in diameter; this vertical drill hole was drilled to a depth of 76m and intersected 55m of kimberlite. The second hole tested target KD-568 and intersected a 2.3m wide lens of kimberlite. Target KD-428 is a magnetic low anomaly with coincident EM approximately 200 m minimum in length. Kimberlite at KD-428 was intersected by a vertical hole at a depth of 15m and terminated in altered kimberlite at a depth of 137m. Target KD-235 is a magnetic low anomaly under a lake and was tested with an angled hole at -50o that intersected kimberlite from 52.5m to 84.4m. For a map please visit the Shear website at www.shearminerals.com.
Representative samples have been collected from each of the new kimberlites and will be submitted to the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC), an independent laboratory, for micro-diamond analysis. Samples have been collected for petrographic and indicator mineral analysis to fully asses the diamond potential of these discoveries.
The current drill program will test up to 20 high priority targets. Drilling will continue into the spring in order to test lake-bound targets. New targets identified in the detailed helicopter-borne Mag/EM data collected this summer will be incorporated into the current and spring drilling programs.
The 8.5 million acre Churchill Diamond project, located near the community of Rankin Inlet in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut is a new and expanding kimberlite district which Shear and its partners discovered in 2003. Success at Churchill has contributed to a major staking rush in the eastern arctic where diamond exploration investment is expected to exceed $100 million in 2004. Shear has a 51% interest in the project and is operator. Stornoway Diamond Corp. and BHP Billiton Diamonds Inc. have 35% and 14% interests respectively. The 2004 field program is under the supervision of Jennifer Burgess, P. Geol., a Qualified Person under NI 43-101.
On behalf of the Board On behalf of the Board
SHEAR MINERALS LTD. STORNOWAY DIAMOND CORPORATION
/s/ "Pamela Strand" /s/ "Eira Thomas"
Pamela Strand, P. Geol. Eira Thomas
President President
ragstoriches
20 years ago
Shear Commences Drilling at Churchill Diamond Project
8/23/04
Up to 20 Targets to be Tested in First Phase - of Ongoing Drilling Program
Shear Minerals Ltd., Stornoway Diamond Corporation, and BHP Billiton Diamonds Inc. announced that exploration drilling on the Churchill Diamond Project has commenced.
The current program is the first phase in an ongoing drilling campaign to identify the source the property's high diamond potential mineral chemistry. It is designed to test a variety of geophysical anomalies. More than 20 priority targets have been selected for drilling over the next six weeks. All of the targets are located within three kimberlite indicator mineral corridors identified from the 2003 sampling campaign.
Drill targets were selected using a combination of detailed airborne Magnetics and Electromagnetics; heavy mineral sample results; and glacial interpretation and mapping. Additional geophysical targets exist within these corridors, including 15 located under lakes. These are scheduled to be tested in a second phase of drilling in spring next year.
"The joint venture has put in place an aggressive $10 million diamond exploration budget for the 2004 season at Churchill, one of the largest in Canada," says Pamela Strand, President and CEO of Shear. "Today's drilling marks the commencement of an intensive drill program that will continue through 2005 and will test a large number of targets found in association with the exciting mineral chemistry present on the property."
Sixteen kimberlites at Churchill and two kimberlites at Churchill West were identified in 2003, over half of which, proved diamondiferous, establishing the region as Canada's newest diamond district. None of the kimberlites drilled to date are located within the newly identified indicator mineral corridors, nor do any of them appear to be the source the high interest mineral chemistry identified on the property in 2002 and 2003. (Please see the Technical Report for Churchill Diamond Property filed July 6, 2004 on www.sedar.com).
The 8.5-million acre Churchill Diamond Project is a new and evolving kimberlite district which Shear and its joint venture partners discovered. Located near the community of Rankin Inlet in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut, this key Eastern Arctic property has been instrumental in the recent staking rush in the region, one of the largest ever in Canada. Shear has a 51% interest in the project and is operator. Stornoway Diamond Corp. and BHP Billiton Diamonds Inc. have 35% and 14% interests respectively. The 2004 field program is under the supervision of Jennifer Burgess, P. Geol., a Qualified Person under NI 43-101.
On behalf of the Board On behalf of the BoardSHEAR MINERALS LTD. STORNOWAY DIAMOND CORPORATION/s/ "Pamela Strand" /s/ "Eira Thomas"Pamela Strand, P. Geol. Eira ThomasPresident President
This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding ongoing and upcoming exploration work and expected geology, geological formations and structures. Actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these statements.
ragstoriches
20 years ago
Shear readies a new drill program
2004-08-19 13:58 ET - Street Wire
Also Street Wire (C-SAZ) International Samuel Exploration Corp
Also Street Wire (C-SWY) Stornoway Diamond Corp
by Will Purcell
Pamela Strand's Shear Minerals Ltd. has high hopes for a new drill program on its Churchill diamond projects to the north and west of Rankin Inlet in Nunavut. The company had uncommon success with its drilling efforts last year, coming up with 16 kimberlites in about 20 tries on the main Churchill property, along with another two discoveries in three attempts on the Churchill West property. Diamond success did not follow the company's kimberlite luck, but Ms. Strand and Shear believe that the new crop of drill targets will have a far greater chance of yielding a significantly diamondiferous deposit.
Shear and its Churchill partners have budgeted about $10-million for exploration on the two Churchill plays this year, ranking the play among the most active Canadian gem exploration programs this year. The core part of the project has now been covered with magnetic and electromagnetic surveys at a 75-metre spacing, and Shear believes that the electromagnetic data will be a big help in the development of suitable drill targets.
Shear owns 51 per cent of the projects, with Stornoway Diamond Corp. holding a 35-per-cent share and BHP Billiton Ltd. owning a 14-per-cent slice in the two Churchill projects. As well, International Samuel Exploration Corp. has an option to earn a 65-per-cent stake in the 210,000-hectare Churchill West property, by spending $1-million over two years. That spending requirement should handily be exceeded this year, as the property has a $1.75-million budget this year.
Shear and its partners plan to spend $8.5-million on the 3.4-million-hectare Churchill property this year. Some of the money has gone to the geophysical survey and more is being directed at another round of surface sampling, but a substantial portion of the expenditure is slated for a busy drill program and processing of any kimberlite samples for diamonds.
Coming up with drill targets for this year has been a slow process, and Ms. Strand said that the partners were currently in the process of selecting the sites to be tested. As expected, the new drill program will be placing a major emphasis on the results of the surface sampling that Shear has completed over the past few years. The company can now overlay all of its geochemical and geophysical data, and that will hopefully result in a high frequency of kimberlite finds with much more diamond promise than those found last year.
Shear is believed to have identified five areas with promising mineral counts, and Ms. Strand said that her company was now focused on three separate corridors on the Churchill play. Those areas include one mineral swath in the south and another in the north, but Ms. Strand described the Josephine River corridor as "the real gutsy one."
Over the past few years, Shear has come up with a promotable array of diamond indicator minerals, including a toutable proportion of G-10 garnets. That mineral promise attracted the likes of BHP to the play, and it has maintained the market's interest through the disappointing diamond results of last fall. In 2001 and again the following year, Shear's G-10 haul accounted for as much as 40 per cent of its pyrope garnet collection, providing encouragement that diamonds would be found in kimberlites in the region.
Ms. Strand said that Shear was collecting another 3,800 samples, and most of them already have been gathered, with about 800 of them currently going through the lab. "We already have pick results back from some of them," Ms. Strand said, adding that the partners were striving to be near the head of the line at the lab this year. The final data from the 2003 program were not available until just a few months ago, but Ms. Strand hopes that some of the results from the current effort will aid in the selection of some of its subsequent drill targets.
Just how many targets will be tested this year is hard to say, although Ms. Strand said the partners were anticipating that something around 20 would be drilled in the current program. "Drilling will go as long as we want it to go," she said, adding that the Churchill partners had well over a year's worth of drilling in the works. As a result, the program will likely terminate with the arrival of winter, and resume again in the spring, as soon as daylight permits.
Ms. Strand said that Shear had come up with quite a number of eligible targets that were under lakes. That is a typical spot for kimberlites to lurk in Canada's lake-dotted North, as the softer rock was easily eroded by glacial action.
Nevertheless, the targets to be tested this fall will be land-based features, or anomalies under small lakes that can be reached with angled holes from land, while the other lake-based targets will be left until next spring, when they can be drilled from the ice. Ms. Strand estimated each hole would cost about $50,000 to complete, and the size of the budget should allow an abundance of targets to be tested.
The new information from the 2003 sampling program and the increased reliance on geochemical data should increase the chances of coming up with some promotable diamond counts, and those odds could be even better next year, once all of the results of the current sampling program are in.
Ms. Strand said that the chemistry from this year would help Shear continually narrow down its main indicator mineral swaths. She stated that it was not yet clear if the Churchill partners had found discrete mineral trains, or plumes of indicators that were thrown off from a big cluster of pipes. She said that the partners could be looking for the one big deposit within that group, adding that Shear had plans to drill everything at the heads of its suspected trains, which would improve its odds.
The geophysical work also provided "a ton of targets outside of these trains," Ms. Strand said, and some of them appear to be excellent kimberlite targets. Nevertheless, the Churchill partners will refrain from testing any of the targets that do not yet have any geochemical support. "We just said no," she added.
Ms. Strand said that although Shear continued to generate encouraging chemistry, she realized that it would likely take some promising diamond counts to trigger a surge of new interest in the project. The Churchill play has produced enough mineral promise to sustain investor interest over the past few years, but speculators can be notoriously impatient, and that adds to the importance of coming up with better diamond counts this time out.
With the market perhaps tiring of the indicator mineral part of the Churchill story, Ms. Strand has added a new twist that could intrigue investors in the coming weeks. She said that some of the new drill targets had produced some beautiful electromagnetic signatures, which Shear hopes will translate into different kinds of kimberlites, potentially with significant quantities of diamonds.
Significant quantities of diamonds were in poor supply last year at Churchill and Churchill West. Although 10 of the 18 finds proved to be diamondiferous, the diamond counts were modest. The best tally came from the first find on the Churchill West play, where just less than 130 kilograms of kimberlite produced a dozen diamonds. That was not particularly encouraging, and with none of the stones large enough to be retained by a 0.30-millimetre mesh, the size distribution of the tiny parcel offered no promotional value.
The first find on the main Churchill property delivered the largest diamonds, but not enough to attract any notice. About 160 kilograms of kimberlite from the Qaumallak-1 pipe had offered up eight diamonds, including three that were retained by a 0.30-millimetre sieve and one that was large enough to cling to a 0.425-millimetre mesh. The proportion of larger diamonds might have sparked a bit of interest, had the rock produced a much larger haul of stones.
In all, about 1.2 tonnes of kimberlite from the 10 diamondiferous pipes had coughed up only 36 diamonds, and just three of them were large enough to be retained by a 0.30-millimetre sieve. Shear did not reveal the weight of the barren samples, but that rock could have boosted the total weight of the Churchill samples to something close to two tonnes.
Still, there was a faint bit of sparkle in the meagre diamond haul, as the results did prove that the area was favourable for finding diamonds, and if the new targets live up to their geochemical billing, Shear should have little trouble in handily topping its first set of counts.
Shear's shares took off last year, peaking at $1.70 just after the company began turning up a steady stream of kimberlite pipes with its first drill program on the property. The wheels fell of the bandwagon a few months later, when the diamond counts form the new finds failed to live up to the market's expectations, and a Shear share cost just 50 cents at one point.
Ms. Strand has proved to be an effective promoter however, and Shear's stock poked above the $1 mark in mid-February, as investors bought into the notion that better results lay ahead, based upon the company's move toward a greater reliance on geochemistry. The stock has slipped back since then in the absence of any hard news from the play, but a busy drill program could change things in a hurry if Shear can duplicate its success rate of last year. Still, Shear and its partners will have to deliver on its geochemical promise to sustain a significant degree of interest in the play.
Shear dropped a penny on Wednesday, closing at 70 cents.
ragstoriches
20 years ago
C'mon Pam Strand! We're waiting!
Shear Announces Commencement of $8.5-Million Churchill Program: Field Crew Mobilized
Wednesday July 14, 9:02 am ET
EDMONTON, ALBERTA and VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(CCNMatthews - Jul 14, 2004) - Shear Minerals Ltd. (SRM:TSXV), Stornoway Diamond Corporation (SWY:TSXV), and BHP Billiton announced today that the 2004 Churchill Diamond Project field program is now underway.
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A field crew has been mobilized to the project area to conduct ground geophysical surveys; glacial interpretation and mapping; and detailed till sampling in areas within and up-ice from high diamond potential G10 indicator mineral plumes and float occurrences.
"We have identified five corridors at Churchill containing indicator minerals prospective for the discovery of diamonds. This year's initial work, together with last year's extensive geophysics, drilling, and sampling, will enable us to choose which targets to drill in these corridors as the season progresses," says Shear President and CEO Pamela Strand.
The joint venture has put in place a preliminary budget of $8.5 million for the 2004 Churchill program which includes:
- Collecting 3,800 surface samples.
- Flying 33,613 line kilometers of detailed helicopter-borne magnetics and electromagnetics.
- Completing 16,575 line kilometers of high-resolution fixed-wing magnetics over a portion of the 2003 prospecting permits.
- Conducting prospecting and mapping in areas where geophysical and/or mineral chemistry has identified possible kimberlites.
- Completing gridding and ground geophysical surveying over priority targets.
- Drilling at least 20 targets which exist in close proximity to high priority diamond indicator mineral chemistry.
Last year the joint venture discovered a total of 16 kimberlites on the property and 2 at the adjacent Churchill West property; collected and analyzed more than 1,800 surface samples; and flew 20,260 line kilometers of geophysics over the project area for a budget of $5 million.
This year the joint venture is following recommendations in a Technical Report prepared for the Churchill Diamond Property to comply with the standards set out in National Instrument 43-101 for the Canadian Securities Administration. The report was prepared by Dean Besserer, B.Sc., P.Geol., principal and Vice President of APEX Geoscience Ltd., a Qualified Person who is considered independent of the issuers as defined in Section 1.5.
In his report, Mr. Besserer says, "Based on exploration conducted throughout the area, diamondiferous kimberlites exist within the Churchill Diamond Property. High quality diamond indicator mineral anomalies exist in till throughout the Churchill Properties which are spatially separate from the existing known kimberlites, therefore the source has yet to be discovered."
Mr. Besserer says that since a limited amount of exploration has been conducted at Churchill, further systematic exploration needs to be completed throughout the properties. "Airborne and ground geophysics in conjunction with diamond indicator mineral sampling, prospecting and drilling, may lead to the important discovery of new kimberlite and/or related intrusion discoveries within the Churchill properties," he says. The Technical Report has been filed and is available on SEDAR.
"The joint venture has now commenced the second year of a multi-year aggressive exploration program aimed at discovering the source of the property's outstanding indicator mineral chemistry," says Ms. Strand. "We will be testing a large percentage of our high priority targets, including some under lakes in our 2004 and 2005 drill program."
Results from the 2003 heavy mineral sampling program continue to indicate the presence of high priority kimberlite indicator minerals suggestive of diamonds, on the property. All 1,870 samples have been picked for silicates resulting in more than 1,500 microprobe-confirmed kimberlite indicator minerals. A review of the detailed helicopter map-EM survey on the project's core area has been completed by independent consultant Christopher Campbell of Intrepid Geophysics, Vancouver B.C. A total of 391 kimberlite targets including 23 of high priority (some of which are under lakes) have been identified.
"The technical team, which has been assembled by all the Churchill partners, is comprised of individuals with a track record for discovering and developing diamond mines. The team has commenced a comprehensive interpretation on all datasets, from which targets will be selected for the up-coming drilling campaign scheduled to commence once ground work is complete," says Ms. Strand.
The 8.5-million acre Churchill Diamond Project is a new and evolving kimberlite district which Shear and its joint venture partners discovered. Located near the community of Rankin Inlet in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut, this key Eastern Arctic property has been instrumental in the recent staking rush in the region. Shear has a 51% interest in the project and is operator. Stornoway Diamond Corp. and BHP Billiton have 35% and 14% interests respectively. The 2004 field program is under the supervision of Jennifer Burgess, P. Geol., a Qualified Person under NI 43-101.
On behalf of the Board On behalf of the Board
SHEAR MINERALS LTD. STORNOWAY DIAMOND CORPORATION
/s/ "Pamela Strand" /s/ "Eira Thomas"
Pamela Strand, P. Geol. Eira Thomas
President President
Rocketred
21 years ago
Shear and Empire identify second Churchill kimberlite
Shear Minerals Ltd SRM
Shares issued 26,920,727 Jun 6 2003 close $ 0.68
Monday June 9 2003 News Release
Also Northern Empire Minerals Ltd (C-NEM) News Release
Ms. Pamela Strand of Shear Minerals reports
NORTHERN EMPIRE MINERALS LTD. AND SHEAR MINERALS LTD.: SECOND KIMBERLITE DISCOVERED AT CHURHILL
Shear Minerals, Northern Empire Minerals and BHP Billiton have discovered a second kimberlite on the Churchill diamond project. Drill hole No. CD002 was designed to test anomaly CK156, a circular magnetic low anomaly 150 metres by 150 metres located six kilometres north of CD001. The first two kimberlites have been named Thunder and Lightning ("Kadluk" and "Kraumalak" in Inuktituk).
"The first two targets drilled have resulted in separate kimberlite discoveries," said Pamela Strand, president and chief executive officer of Shear. "Now that we know there are kimberlites at Churchill, we have added confidence that the source of the outstanding mineral chemistry we have observed is located on the property."
Said John Robins, president and CEO of Empire, "These discoveries clearly confirm our belief that Churchill will become one of Canada's leading diamond projects."
The current phase of drilling is designed to test a minimum of 15 high-priority kimberlite targets of the 217 geophysical targets identified to date on the property. Drilling continues and additional results will be forthcoming. The Churchill diamond project totals more than 1.5 million acres and is located near the community of Rankin Inlet, Nunavut.
Shear has a 51-per-cent interest and is operator of all exploration programs. Northern Empire is earning into a 35-per-cent interest by incurring $750,000 in exploration expenditures. BHP Billiton has a 14-per-cent interest in Churchill and has also agreed to finance the costs of collection, sampling and processing the initial 200 tonnes of kimberlite.
All programs are under the supervision of Dean Besserer, PGeol, of APEX Geoscience Ltd., a qualified person under NI 43-101.
(c) Copyright 2003 Canjex Publishing Ltd. http://www.stockwatch.com
old url (better for printing)
Rocketred
21 years ago
FOR: SHEAR MINERALS LTD.
TSX VENTURE SYMBOL: SRM
AND NORTHERN EMPIRE MINERALS LTD.
TSX VENTURE SYMBOL: NEM
JUNE 7, 2003 - 17:12 ET
Shear Minerals Ltd. and Northern Empire Minerals Ltd.:
First Kimberlite Intersected; Churchill Diamond Joint
Venture
EDMONTON, ALBERTA and VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--Shear Minerals
Ltd. (SRM: TSXV), Northern Empire Minerals Ltd. (NEM:TSXV) and
BHP Billiton today announced that the 2003 drill program at the
Churchill Diamond Program has commenced and that the initial
drill hole has discovered the first kimberlite pipe on the
property.
Drill hole number CD001 was designed to test CK151, a circular
magnetic low anomaly. The vertical drill hole tested the centre
of the anomaly and intersected kimberlite at a depth of 35 feet.
Michael Dufresne, P. Geol. of APEX Geoscience Ltd., is the
Qualified Person on site and describes the macrocrystic
kimberlite and breccia with visible olivine macrocrysts and
picroilmenite. The hole remains in kimberlite at a depth of 287
feet. Core has been sent for petrographic analysis to R.L.
Barnett Geological Ltd. in order to determine and confirm the
mineralogy of the kimberlite.
"We hit kimberlite on the first drill-hole and within the first
12 hours of drilling which is very encouraging," said Pamela
Strand, President and CEO of Shear. "The much anticipated drill
program is now well underway."
A review of last year's 16,307 line-km aeromagnetic survey
completed on the initial 500,000 acre claim block identified 217
kimberlite targets at the Churchill property. In March this year,
ground geophysical data was acquired on 30 of these anomalies
resulting in 23 priority drill targets. This phase of drilling is
designed to test a minimum of 15 of these targets. A Fugro
helicopter magnetic-electromagnetic survey has recently been
completed over these high priority areas.
Shear holds a vested 51% interest and is operator at Churchill.
As per the June 2, 2003, news release BHP Billiton has purchased
a 14% interest in Churchill for $3 million and has also agreed to
fund the costs of collecting, sampling and processing the initial
200 tonnes of kimberlite. Northern Empire is earning into a 35%
interest at Churchill by incurring $750,000 in exploration
expenditures.
"Given our kimberlite discovery we are optimistic that this
year's exploration may result in the discovery of an entirely new
kimberlite cluster at Churchill Diamond Project," said Ms.
Strand. The joint venture has accumulated additional lands making
the Churchill Diamond Project total more than 1.5 million
contiguous favorable acres. In the past year, the joint venture
has advanced the project to the current drill-ready stage by
conducting a comprehensive exploration program that included
kimberlite indicator mineral sampling, prospecting and
geophysics. In January 2003, the partners approved a budget of
$2.5 million program. All programs are under the supervision of
Dean Besserer, P. Geol., of APEX Geoscience Ltd., a qualified
person under NI 43-101.
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