Wawa-Missanabie Diamond, Nickel, Copper And Gold Project, (also called the Chapleau Project)
LOCATION: Northeastern Ontario, at the northeastern corner of Lake Superior. The closest city is Sault Ste. Marie, near the junction of Lake Superior and Lake Huron.
OWNERSHIP: Chalice Diamond wholly owns 20,000 hectares of the land package and 50% of the balance of 120,000 hectares, with the remaining 50% interests held by joint-venture partners Klondike Gold Corp., Amador Gold Corp., Kalahari Resources Inc., Sedex Mining Corp., Abitibi Mining Corp. and Kootenay Gold Inc.
MINERALS: Diamonds, gold, silver, nickel, copper and platinum group metals in various geological settings.
GEOLOGY: The project area is underlain by the Archean-age Michipicoten Greenstone Belt (MGB) and older basement granitoid rocks. The MGB has the greatest number of diamond occurrences in Archean rocks in Ontario, and possibly North America, and also hosts known occurrences of sapphires, rubies and gold.
RECENT EXPLORATION: The Wawa-Missanabie land package lies within an Archean-age greenstone belt known to host a prolific number of diamonds found in a variety of geological settings. The most significant diamond discoveries to date in the region were found by Dianor Resources Inc. at its Leadbetter Property near Wawa. During the past two years, Chalice Diamonds and its predecessor and partners have systematically explored their large land package through prospecting, geochemical (till) sampling programs and airborne and ground geophysical surveys.
The GC1 kimberlite dyke in Bader Township, and the Fletch kimberlite dyke in Dolson Township were discovered by prospectors in the 1990s but were never explored. Recent exploration by the Company has traced the dykes for up to 600 meters along strike, with the dykes still open in both directions. Initial sampling yielded 16 microdiamonds from the GC1 dyke and eight microdiamonds from the Fletch occurrence. Subsequent exploration has discovered 13 new dykes with similar chemistry.
Chalice Diamond has discovered 35 diamonds, including five macrodiamonds (defined as having at least one dimension exceeding 0.55 mm), in an 8.4-kg rock sample similar to and on strike with the diamond-bearing conglomerate found at Dianor's Leadbetter Project. Nearby rock outcrops yielded another six microdiamonds from initial sampling. Recent mapping has outlined the favorable Leadbetter stratigraphy onto the Company's Corbiere Property, which in turn led to the discovery of a diamond in a volcanic breccia on the Company's Esquega Property.
Based on newly compiled geological, geophysical, geochemical and structural data, the Company's land package also has potential for kimberlite pipes and possibly lamproites containing large diamonds, in addition to the known kimberlite dykes discovered to date. Compiled data has also identified target areas with gold, silver, nickel and copper mineralization potential.
Chalice Diamond's wholly-owned Bird Property (part of the Wawa-Missanabie Project) encompasses an intriguing nickel-copper-platinum group metal target with a similar geophysical setting as the underground Eagle deposit being advanced toward production by Kennecott Minerals Company (a division of Rio Tinto) in neighboring Michigan State. Once in production, Eagle will become America's only primary nickel mine.
The Bird Property has a large reverse polarity magnetic anomaly with a magnetic signature similar to the Eagle deposit. Two VTEM airborne geophysical surveys were flown over the Bird anomaly and the results are currently being interpreted. Additionally, an MMI geochemical survey has been completed over the area of the Bird anomaly. The results from the VTEM and MMI surveys are being compiled and reviewed to generate drill hole locations for testing nickel-copper PGM mineralization in this unique geophysical feature.
NEXT STEPS: Future exploration and drilling programs will be directed at testing wide diamond-bearing kimberlite dykes, and potential kimberlite pipes, as well as target areas with nickel, copper and gold mineralization potential identified by recent geophysical surveys and/or prospecting and sampling programs.
