A .64-carat diamond is the latest find at Peregrine Diamonds’ Chidliak project in Baffin Island, Nunavut.
The Vancouver-based company announced the discovery earlier this month, along with a coarse diamond size distribution in a surface sample taken at the CH-7 kimberlite.
A 220.9-kg sample collected from CH-7 yielded 664 diamonds larger than the 0.075-mm sieve size, including 11 white diamonds larger than the 0.600-mm sieve size. The .64-carat stone is an off-white translucent octahedroid.
“The coarse diamond size distribution indicated at CH-7 is another example of the excellent diamond potential at Chidliak,” said company president Brooke Clements. “We have now received diamond results for eight of the 16 kimberlites discovered to date at Chidliak, and all eight are diamondiferous with three of these—CH-1, CH-6, and CH-7—having diamond contents and coarse diamond size distributions that are consistent with economic potential.”
Clements said the 2010 exploration program is expected to start up in April and includes multiple drill rigs, an expanded high-resolution airborne geophysical survey, and more prospecting for surface kimberlites.
