Diamonds: Kennady continues to sparkle

Ontario – Toronto-based Kennady Diamonds has recovered the biggest diamond yet in samples from its Kennady North diamond project in the Northwest Territories. A 276.4-tonne sample from the Faraday 3 kimberlite returned 460.5 carats of commercial size diamonds (over 0.85 mm), including a 7.78-carat white gem-quality octahedral stone, for an overall grade of 1.67 carats per tonne. A total of 26 diamonds of one carat or greater were recovered, of which nine are gem quality and seven are “near gem” quality. Since drilling was designed to sample the thickest parts of the pipe in order to maximize carats recovered for the purpose of resource definition, the reported sample grade may not be representative of the entire pipe. [caption id="attachment_1003718832" align="alignnone" width="500"] Kennady Diamonds' Kennady North project in the Northwest Territories. Credit: Kennady Diamonds[/caption] “While the grade achieved for the Faraday 3 kimberlite is in line with expectations, the recovery of a high quality 7.78 carat gem from the sample is extremely exciting," said Kennady president and CEO Rory Moore. “As with Faraday 2, the size distribution and quality characteristics of the Faraday 3 diamonds appear better than those recovered from Kelvin to date, with a notable trend of increased quality with diamond size and a higher incidence of well-formed crystals in the larger size fractions.” A smaller 26.4-tonne sample from the Faraday 1 kimberlite returned 76.8 carats of diamonds (+0.85mm) for a sample grade of 2.91 carats per tonne. The largest stone recovered was a 3.21 carat white/colourless tetrahexahedron. Eight diamonds weighing one carat or more were recovered. For more information, visit: www.kennadydiamonds.com.