Update on the Kennady North winter drilling program
The Kennady North diamond project is located in Canada's Northwest Territories. — Photo courtesy Kennady Diamonds Inc.
Kennady Diamonds Inc. ("Kennady", the "Company") (TSX-V: KDI) is pleased to provide an update on the winter drilling program at the Kennady North Project. Drilling is proceeding well with a total of 1,868 meters of drilling completed to date. Included in today's release are three exploration/delineation holes and one geotechnical hole completed on the Faraday 1-3 kimberlite, and two delineation holes completed on Faraday 2. All eleven drill holes completed on the program to date have intersected kimberlite.
President and CEO of Kennady Diamonds, Dr. Rory Moore commented: "The program is running smoothly as both daylight and good weather have increased". He went on to say, "The SRK geotech crew is back on site after a short break and the geotech drilling on both Faraday bodies will be completed over the next couple of weeks, after which one of the two drill rigs will be devoted to exploration drilling in the Kelvin – Faraday Corridor for the remainder of the season".
In addition to the geotech drilling completed to date on Faraday 1-3, a number of delineation/exploration holes have been drilled in the area between the two limbs of the kimberlite complex. Results to date indicate an increase in size for the Faraday 1-3 complex, with continuity in the high-grade hypabyssal sheet rocks linking the two pipes together. These factors will be accretive to kimberlite tonnage potential when the geological model for Faraday 1-3 is updated.
One of the drill rigs has been conducting delineation drilling on the northwest extension to the Faraday 2 kimberlite. The northwest extension, that was discovered during the summer 2017 program, extends the Faraday 2 kimberlite by over 150 meters (see news release, September 11, 2017). Detailed logging of core has confirmed that the geologic units within the inferred resource continue into the northwest extension (see news release, March 7, 2018). The first delineation hole deviated slightly from its planned path and clipped the lower portion of the body producing a 21.75 m kimberlite intercept. However, the second hole hit exactly as planned around the middle of the body and delivered a 50 m kimberlite intercept. Information from this drilling will be used to advance this portion of the pipe shell model to an inferred level of confidence.
Approximately 10,500 meters of diamond drilling is planned for the 2018 winter program, with 40% assigned to delineation and geotechnical drilling of the Faraday bodies, and 60% dedicated to testing high-priority grassroots exploration targets within the Kelvin-Faraday Corridor. Exploration drilling on the high-priority targets will commence when drilling on the Faraday 1-3 kimberlite is completed.
About Kennady Diamonds
Kennady Diamonds Inc. controls 100 percent of the Kennady North diamond project located in Canada's Northwest Territories. Kennady North is adjacent to the Gahcho Kué Diamond Mine, a joint venture between De Beers Canada (51%) and Mountain Province (49%). Kennady is focused on expanding its high-grade diamond resources along the Kelvin–Faraday kimberlite corridor, as well as identifying new kimberlites outside of the corridor. To date an indicated resource of 13.62 million carats of diamonds contained in 8.50 million tonnes of kimberlite, with a grade of 1.60 carats per tonne and an average value of US$63 per carat has been defined for the Kelvin kimberlite and an inferred resource of 5.02 million carats contained in 3.27 million tonnes of kimberlite, with a grade of 1.54 carats per tonne and an average value of US$98 per carat has been defined for the Faraday kimberlites using a 1mm diamond bottom cutoff size. The Kelvin – Faraday corridor is also a target for further exploration.
