Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

NNSL (Nov 27/98) - Key to the future of one of the North's most promising diamond projects will be sampling done this winter, geologist Walter Melnyk said.

"What will make or break this project is the bulk sample," he said.

Melnyk, a consulting geologist with Winspear Resources Ltd., spoke Wednesday at the Geoscience Forum at the Explorer Hotel.

Winspear, a company named for a character in a Harlequin romance, has found diamonds at the Camsell Lake site. Joint venture partner on the project, 220 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife, is Aber Resources. Aber holds a 40 per cent stake in the Diavik project.

Winspear, two-thirds owner of Camsell, and Aber, are optimistic the bulk sample, to be taken from the Snap Lake area of the Camsell site, could be a good one.

From two kimberlite samples, 105 tonnes taken from one pit and 94 tonnes taken from a second pit about a year ago, Winspear scored 21 diamonds over one carat. Among them three whoppers weighing in at 10.87, 8.43 and 6.03 carats.

"We don't think we were lucky. The thought is there should be bigger stones."

In fact, the biggest of the trio had a corner sheared off meaning it was even bigger.

What makes these two samples even more dramatic are the carat values. The 199-tonne sample yielded 1.14 carats per tonne. The rough diamonds were valued at $467.33 ($301.43 US) per carat. That translates into a stunning $523.76 ($343.63 US) per tonne. BHP's Panda pit, currently being mined at Ekati, is estimated to generate about $200 ($130 US) per tonne.

In the past four years, Vancouver-based Winspear and its joint venture partners have spent $25 million exploring for diamonds in the North.

The Winspear presentation was among day one of the forum's presentation.

The Geoscience Forum continues to be the largest conference in the NWT, Chamber of Mines executive director Mike Vaydik said.

Conference spokesperson Vicki Swan said Wednesday, about 550 delegates had registered, ahead of the 525 people who attended last year's event.

The forum shows the key role mining and exploration plays in the Northern economy, Vaydik said.

And, Vaydik adds, aboriginal leaders acknowledge mining is an industry which needs to be on the economic agenda.