Diamonds in Canada June 2019

—IN CANADA—

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SYNTHETICS VS LAB-GROWN: WHAT’S IN A NAME?

JUNE | 2019

CHRIS JENNINGS SEES PAST THE MARKET GLOOM

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Contents 5

JUNE 2019

8

11 EDITORIAL Are diamonds forever? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

LUCARA UNEARTHS MORE BIG STONES, ADVANCES CLARA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

‘WE NEED A MAJOR DISCOVERY’

GAHCHO KUÉ DELIVERS FANCIES, LARGE DIAMONDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Chris Jennings sees past the current market gloom

By Alisha Hiyate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

ON THE COVER: Chris Jennings and North Arrow Minerals CEO Ken Armstrong.

Credit: North Arrow Minerals

What they’re called will influence consumer perceptions of synthetic or lab-grown diamonds

By Paul Zimnisky. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

THE DPA BATTLES DIAMOND MINING MISPERCEPTIONS

By D’Arcy Jenish . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

DE BEERS TAPS NEW LEADER FOR CONSOLIDATED CANADIAN AND SOUTH AFRICAN ASSETS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 STORNOWAY STOCK SINKS ON LIQUIDITY ISSUES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 FINE CUTS Diamcor nears production announcement; Bulk sample under way at Star . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

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Are diamonds forever?

ALISHA HIYATE EDITOR

‘

If you believe in world GDP growth, then you have to believe in diamonds.

’

— Lucara Diamond CEO Eira Thomas

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e’re hosting our second annual Diamonds in Canada Symposium in June in Toronto at an unlikely time.

In a sector that has seen so much uncertainty in the past decade, investor sentiment towards diamond mining seems to have reached its nadir.

The only question is who is right about the future of diamond mining. Is it the doomsayers, who believe what we’re seeing right now is the death knell of the industry, or is it the optimists, who see the low point we’re in as a contrarian signal that we’ve reached bottom, or alternately, believe that the industry can adapt and survive?

The challenges – including disinterested investors, and consumers who are demanding more transparency and question the mining sector’s environmental impact – are many.

More recently, synthetics or lab-created diamonds have loomed large as a threat to natural diamonds.

So what is the right response?

It’s clear that the cost of exploring for diamonds, evaluating projects and diamond mining have to come down. It’s also a given that the industry at all levels – mining, the mid-stream and downstream retailers – have to embrace transparency.

All of this is actually already happening, if slowly.

“The industry has realized that it needs to tell a better story. It needs to vouch for its product and show that natural diamonds are responsibly sourced and are ethical and have a do-good story to tell,” noted Avi Krawitz, senior analyst with Rapaport in a recent presentation at the annual JCK Jewelry show in Las Vegas.

This isn’t only happening on the retail side.

De Beers Tracr technology, Lucara Diamond’s Clara platform, and the Diamond Producers Association current campaign (page 11) are all examples of miners recognizing how important this is.

On the environmental side, De Beers is working on innovative ways to mine diamonds with a much smaller footprint at its Chidliak project in Nunavut (see Page 17 and our November 2018 coverage).

And the recent discoveries of large diamonds

by Lucara Diamond, Petra Diamonds, and others have provided a bright spot for the industry with regard to synthetics.

“If lab-grown is a controversial topic, the antidote is the beautiful large, natural diamonds that come to the market and gain such high, high values,” Krawitz said. “(They) really are a testament to the value that is inherent in a natural diamond.”

The diamond sector will no doubt look radically different in another 10 years’ time.

But, there is reason for optimism.

“If you believe in world GDP growth, then you have to believe in diamonds,” said Lucara CEO Eira Thomas at The Northern Miner’s recent Canadian Mining Symposium in London. “I’m very optimistic. We’ve got a lot of opportunity in the space right now and we have to get out there and convince a new investor base that this opportunity is one that they should be seizing today.”

It certainly won’t be easy. But the new story of diamonds is already beginning to take shape.

As ever, we welcome your feedback at ahiyate@northernminer.com.

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‘We need

a MAJOR discovery’

Diamond exploration pioneer and ‘optimist’ Chris Jennings sees past the current market gloom

Chris Jennings

BY ALISHA HIYATE

W

hen the Diavik diamond mine began production in 2004, there were likely more than a few miners that experienced deep pangs of regret, remembering that they could have had a shot at discovering and owning Canada’s second – and richest – diamond mine.

If only they had listened to Chris Jennings.

Jennings was one of very few people in the 1990s who understood Canada’s potential for diamond exploration and production.

At the time Chuck Fipke, Stu Blusson and BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) made the Point Lake diamond discovery (1991) in Lac de Gras, Northwest Territories, Jennings was in London, U.K., trying to raise money to start his own company to explore the same area for diamonds.

He had already tried to convince the heads of exploration at several majors – to no avail – that there was potential for a big find.

Rio Tinto and Dominion Dominon’s Diavik mine, in the Northwest Territories. CREDIT: RIO TINTO

“

Right now, there’s a bit of an oversupply of small diamonds, but coloured diamonds and large diamonds are selling extremely well.

”

— Chris Jennings

“Not only Falconbridge, Superior, Corona , BP – I went to see the heads of Noranda and Teck and told them there are going to be major discoveries,” Jen-

nings said in an interview in early June.

“They just laughed at me, they wouldn’t put a cent into it. It’s ironic that Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton as non-Canadian companies are the ones that ended up with the lion’s share of the Northwest Territories mines. You have to have somebody with a vision to believe a story and a lot of companies didn’t have it.”

As luck would have it, while in London, Jennings got a call from Bob Gannicott and Grenville Thomas, hoping he could help them make sense of the Point Lake find.

Jennings advised them where to stake and the rest is history, with Aber Diamond staking the ground that would become Diavik and Jennings helping bring in Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO) as a partner.

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Chris Jennings with North Arrow Minerals’ president and CEO Ken Armstrong at the Redemption project in Lac de Gras.

CREDIT: NORTH ARROW MINERALS

Falconbridge innovations Jennings, originally from South Africa, learned a lot about diamonds while working for the Geological Survey of Botswana during the 1950s and ‘60s. At the same time, he had a keen interest in geophysics for mineral exploration, and learned as much as he could about every known geophysical instrument.

At the survey, he worked closely with De Beers geologists, namely Gavin Lamont, whom Jennings describes as likely “the world’s most successful ever diamond geologist.” He learned that, at that time, De Beers relied on soil sampling to make discoveries, and didn’t use geophysics at all.

“Gavin eventually asked me to do a magnetic survey over one of his pipes and eventually over the big Orapa pipe – and clearly these things had geophysical signatures.”

That was knowledge Jennings took with him when he joined Falconbridge in 1970, eventually becoming general manager of the company’s African operations.

After waiting several years because he had insider-like knowledge of De Beers’ exploration methods from working at the Survey, he pitched a diamond exploration program to Falconbridge.

The end result was a 50/50 joint venture between Falconbridge and Superior, with programs conducted in Botswana, Canada and the U.S. Dummett supervised the Superior side of the JV and hired Chuck Fipke to help with sampling operations in North America.

In 1974, they started flying airborne surveys in Botswana, finding 70 kimberlites – mostly in areas where De Beers had already explored – in a three-year period.

“We realized that a quicker and effective exploration tool in addition to sampling on the ground would be airborne geophysics,” Jennings said. “In one case, we found a kimberlite where De Beers had a cut line where they’d sampled and not found anything because the kimber-

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lite was well below 60 or 80 metres and covered in Kalahari sand.”

The discoveries of the kimberlites was just the first hurdle.

To evaluate each kimberlite, they would have had to conduct a mini-bulk sample then a larger bulk sample. That would have cost around $10 million each – or $700 million to evaluate all 70.

To help them find a way to prioritize the kimberlites, Jennings got John Gurney, a professor of geochemistry at Cape Town University, involved.

The work that Gurney did using Falconbridge’s sampling information clearly showed that certain garnets were predictive of kimberlites and the more of those garnets the higher the grade of the kimberlite.

“This was a big breakthrough, prediction of economic kimberlites based on mineral chemistry,” Jennings noted.

“Work has been ongoing ever since. It’s not just garnets, it’s pyroxenes, it’s spinels, ilmenites – all contribute now to a surer prediction of whether a kimberlite comes from the diamond stability field.”

Falconbridge also did pioneering work on using microdiamonds as a pre-

dictive tool for finding bigger, commercial-sized diamonds. Falconbridge’s lab, Lakefield Research, developed techniques to dissolve kimberlite to find the microdiamonds.

Falconbridge later did a deal with De Beers that gave the diamond giant all their data and effectively abandoned diamond exploration.

“We found we were way ahead of them on mineral chemistry,” Jennings recalls.

The acquisition in the early 1980s also put Falconbridge’s world-class diamond exploration team, including Jennings and Hugo Dummett, out of work. Dummett went on to work with BHP and Jennings with BP. “We never gave the Gurney report to Chuck, but he knew something was going on and later, through his own research and also hiring one of John Gurney’s people, they also came across the secrets of garnet chemistry,” Jennings says.

Later, when Jennings was senior vicepresident at Corona in the late ‘80s, he took money from other exploration budgets to fund a diamond program in the north.

Through a combination of tracing Fipke’s trail and his own exploration work

I

in the Arctic with BP in the 1980s following the same trail of kimberlite indicator minerals west of Lac de Gras, Jennings had a good idea where to look.

“I hired a young geo called Leni Keogh, and I tried to get ahead of Chuck – I knew he was out there somewhere in the middle of the Barrens. I told Leni to start in the east and move westward and we hoped to get to the source before Chuck,” he said. “When Leni got to Exeter Lake, she reported excitedly to me that she could actually see lots of red garnets and beautiful purple garnets, which are the diagnostic ones and I couldn’t believe it because normally you have to concentrate the garnets.”

When Jennings asked Corona for $100,000 for an exploration program, they turned him down, and then they fired him. “They lost an opportunity to find a $30-billion mine.”

‘We need a major discovery’ Jennings is now a director of North Arrow

Minerals (TSXV: NAR), a junior with several diamond exploration projects in Canada, including the advanced Naujaat project in Nunavut, where fancy, intense orangey-yellow and orange diamonds have been recovered. He also occasionally advises Lucapa Diamond (ASX: LOM) and is a special advisor to Pangolin Diamonds (TSXV: PAN).

Despite the current negativity around the diamond market, he still believes that the industry has a bright future.

“All my life I’ve been an optimist and I continue to be an optimist,” he said. “I think what we need is a major discovery and that will vitalize the diamond industry as the discoveries of Ekati and Diavik did here in Canada.”

Jennings believes there’s potential for new, important discoveries to be made in Canada, Botswana and Angola.

Not all the innovation around diamond exploration and evaluation methods is in the past.

“Chuck today has developed a pro-

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prietary method of taking a pyroxene from a kimberlite and he can now predict whether that kimberlite is going to have diamonds up to 50 carats,” Jennings says.

“This is part of the innovation that’s happening around the world.”

While some see a threat in lab-created diamonds, Jennings doesn’t see the end of natural mined diamonds.

“Production of synthetic diamonds requires huge pressures and temperatures, so the costs are going to go up and they’re probably going to go up to almost exceed the cost of producing natural diamonds.

So I think there’s room for both,” he said.

“Right now, there’s a bit of an oversupply of small diamonds, but coloured diamonds and large diamonds are selling extremely well.”

He adds: “Today, there are well over 2,000 billionaires – they’re in London, New York, San Francisco, Beijing – they are the ones who buy the big, expensive stones and $50 million for a diamond seems to be nothing to them.”

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www.mountainprovince.com June 2019 v 7

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diamond by any other name?

BY PAUL ZIMNISKY

W

hen Signet Jewelers’ (NYSE: SIG) e-commerce subsidiary James Allen began offering man-made diamonds in May, the company added an additional search tab to the site: “Earth-created diamonds” or “Lab-created Diamonds.” Up until this point, websites offering both products typically defaulted to natural diamonds or simply “diamonds” providing a further filter required to search for the man-made variety.

While this seems somewhat trivial, it highlights the fact that the industry is still undecided in how to present diamonds to consumers following the wider-scale emergence of man-made stones in recent years. Given the wide variation of terms already used by the trade to describe man-made diamonds, adding an “earth-created” qualifier to natural diamonds seems like further convolution at a time when diamond customers are already understandably confused.

These days, when a consumer researches what is often times a multi-thousand-dollar diamond purchase they are faced with multiple terms to describe multiple different products, whether it

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Lightbox Jewelry’s lab-grown diamond seeds.

CREDIT: LIGHTBOX JEWELRY

extent, most are not technically produced in a “lab,” but rather a manufacturing facility or a factory. Only the research and development typically takes place in a laboratory setting.

“Synthetic” was the ubiquitous term used to describe the product prior to 2017. Given that man has been commercially making diamonds for over a half of a century, largely for industrial application, the term was similarly applied to gem-quality versions when the product began emerging in greater scale in recent years. “Synthetic” tends to be the preferred term by the mining industry given the potentially pejorative association when speaking of a luxury product.

Interestingly, while the U.S’s Federal Trade Commission removed the word synthetic from its recommended descriptors of man-made diamonds in July 2018, in May 2019, when the Trade Representative, another U.S. government body, issued a list of products that would be affected by the latest round of trade tariffs with China, the government used the term synthetic to describe man-made diamonds and other gem-stones.

Are you, the project, the diamond sales, and the financier on different continents?

From a marketing standpoint, it is understandable why the industry is jockeying with terms to describe these products because it will likely impact consumers’ perceptions. is a natural stone, a man-made, a simulant or some other altered version or hybrid. From a marketing standpoint, it is understandable why the industry is jockeying with terms to describe these products because it will likely impact the perception of consumers.

With regard to man-made diamonds, the industry prefers the term “lab” to be included in the descriptor because it evokes a perception of innovation and technological advancement. However, while man-made diamonds do represent these nouns to an

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Technically speaking, “man-made” is probably the most appropriate descriptor for the product although the industry has most actively pushed “lab-created” or “lab-grown” given the aforementioned marketing benefit.

Consequently, there also appears to be growing use of the acronym “LGD,” shorthand for lab-grown-diamonds. Given the popularity of acronyms, especially in the social media age, along with many in the industry growing tired of writing out “lab-grown diamond,” LGD has been appearing more frequently, at least in trade communication.

Again, as trivial as this may sound, if LGD becomes the standard moniker of man-made diamonds it could actually have significant implications. By using LGD, the word “diamond” is literally removed from the description. Further, given consumer familiarity with CZ, the acronym for cubic zirconia, a diamond simulant, consumers may subconsciously relate an acronym for a diamond product to be a diamond simulant even though in the case of man-made diamonds, the product is chemically diamond.

This could erode the perceived value and desirability of the product as a luxury item in consumers eyes.

Widely-available, high-quality man-made diamonds are still a relatively new product, representing only a single-digit percentage of the global diamond jewelry market, so the parlance remains up for grabs. There are still consumers that do not even know that

man-made diamonds exist, and many of the ones that do may still not be exactly sure what they are.

Given how important marketing and consumer psychology is to a luxury product, and especially in the case of diamonds given the high emotional-value component, the term that becomes the standard to describe man-made diamonds could have a significant impact on the success of the product longer-term.

Paul Zimnisky, CFA is an independent diamond industry analyst and consultant based in the New York metro area. For regular analysis of the diamond industry please subscribe to his State of the Diamond Market, a leading monthly industry report. Paul is a graduate of the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business with a B.S. in finance and he is a CFA charterholder. He can be reached at paul@paulzimnisky.com and followed on Twitter @paulzimnisky.

Also, check out Paul Zimnisky’s new diamond podcast. The first three episodes featuring special guests Rob Bates, Ken Johnson and Sally Morrison.

Disclosure: At the time of writing Paul Zimnisky held a long position in companies with exposure to the natural diamond industry including Lucara Diamond, Mountain Province Diamonds, Diamcor Mining, North Arrow Minerals and Signet Jewelers.

Canada’s Most Active Diamond Explorer @narminerals northarrowminerals northarrowminerals.com info@northarrowminerals.com Suite 960, 789 West Pender Street Vancouver, BC V6C 1H2 604.668.8355

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BY D’ARCY JENISH

DPA battles diamond mining misconceptions

J

ean-Marc Lieberherr readily concedes that the industry he represents and speaks for – global diamond mining – has an image problem. “There are so many misconceptions about diamond mining,” says Lieberherr, chief executive officer of the Belgium-based Diamond Producers Association. “Issues from the 1990s, like conflict diamonds that funded several African civil wars, are real scars in the history of the industry.”

Much has changed within the industry over the past 20 years. In 2003, the United Nations General Assembly passed

Jean-Marc Lieberherr

Top: Diamond sorting at De Beers’ Diamond Trading Company in Botswana.

a resolution establishing the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which aimed at preventing conflict diamonds from entering the mainstream rough diamond market. And by July 2013, some 54 participants from 81 countries had endorsed the Kimberley Process.

Then, in 2015, seven companies that comprise 75% of global production formed the Diamond Producers Association to set standards, improve transparency, foster collaboration between member companies and to enhance the industry’s image.

“This industry has been unfairly painted with a broad brush based on African arti-

CREDIT: DE BEERS

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Alrosa’s International mine, in Yakutia, Russia. CREDIT: ALROSA

sanal mining,” Lieberherr says. “It’s a reality we can’t ignore.”

But the industry can – and is – fighting back. In early May, the DPA released the first comprehensive report on the social and economic impact of large-scale diamond mining on local communities. The report, produced by Trucost ESG Analysis, part of S&P Global, concluded that the industry generates $16 billion in net socioeconomic and environmental benefits.

Approximately 60% of that money flows back to communities through employment, sourcing of goods and services, as well as taxes and royalties paid to local governments.

The Canadian industry is a case in point. Canada is the third largest producer in the world, behind Russia and Botswana, and is home to three operat-

ing mines in the Northwest Territories and one in Quebec, as well as several advanced projects and a couple of recently closed mines. Lieberherr says that with a total population of only 44,500, almost

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half of whom live in the capital of Yellowknife, the Northwest Territories are “hugely dependent economically on the diamond mining sector.”

DPA members employ 77,000 people worldwide and – contrary to the image of an industry based on forced labour, including children – large-scale mining companies typically pay their workers as much as 66% more than the average national salary. Employees and contractors are highly trained and, despite the inherent dangers, rarely suffer lost-time injuries.

Lieberherr points out that the industry averages one lost-time injury per million hours worked, whereas there are 17 times as many lost tine injuries in construction.

“It’s actually less dangerous to work in a DPA mine than to be doing home renovations or working in your garden,” he says.

“That’s because there’s such a strong focus on safety.”

The global mining industry frequently comes under attack these days for its impact on the environment and diamond miners are no exception. However, in some essential respects, diamond mining differs from other forms of mineral extraction and processing. “Ninety-nine per cent of the waste we generate is essentially crushed kimberlite rock,” Lieberherr says. “It doesn’t take any chemicals to separate the diamonds from the ore. In terms of waste generation, diamond mining is really a very clean process.”

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CORPORATE PROFILE

Talmora advances Horton River project through JV

“

It’s actually less dangerous to work in a DPA mine than to be doing home renovations or working in your garden.

”

— DPA CEO Jean-Marc Lieberherr

Emissions remain an issue, largely due to the consumption of fossil fuels and electricity. Globally, diamond miners produce 160 kg of carbon dioxide emissions per carat of polished diamond. That is significant, says Lieberherr, but he is quick to point out that some companies are investing in renewable energy in order to reduce emissions. Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO; LSE: RIO) is relying on wind turbines at its Diavik mine in the Northwest Territories to generate 10% of operational requirements and Diavik is the largest open pit mine in the world based on production.

All of Canada’s diamond mines are located in remote northern locales and must adhere to stringent environmental regulations.

“To mine diamonds in a pristine envi-

Rough diamonds from Rio Tinto’s Argyle mine, in Australia. CREDIT: RIO TINTO

ronment like the Northwest Territories is testimony to the capabilities on the mining companies and the respect they have for the environment,” Lieberherr says.

The global industry is facing an emerging competitive threat from lab grown diamonds, which now represent a mere 2-3% of the market. Most are produced in China, northern India, Singapore and California.

“They’re getting some traction with consumers because they look very beautiful and they’re cheap,” he says. “And they’re going to get cheaper and cheaper.”

Producers of lab grown diamonds claim that their industry is more ecofriendly than the mining industry because they are not creating millions of tonnes of waste rock to produce rough diamonds.

However, Lieberherr notes that their CO2 emissions – 511 kg per polished carat – are three times higher than the mining industry average.

“They have to produce in a matter of weeks something that’s taken millions of years to produce underground,” Lieberherr says. “It takes incredible temperatures in these reactors – two to three times the heat of the sun – to get that result.

So, you’ve got huge electricity consumption, most of it from coal-fired generating plants.”

A shallow pond covering a magnetic anomaly at Talmora Diamond’s property on the Melvin Hills plateau.

Credit: Talmora Diamond

Talmora Diamond (CSE: TAI) picked up its Horton River project in the Northwest Territories in 2003. By 2004, the whole Lena West region was covered by claims and juniors conducting surveys and till sampling but the source of the many KIMs and diamonds in the area has not been found.

Horton River has not seen any core drilling, but Talmora has identified many prospective targets for testing. Sampling by the company has shown a strong correlation between KIMs in till samples and over 40 magnetic anomalies at the project with characteristics of kimberlite pipes.

Talmora signed an agreement in 2018 in which Olivut Resources can earn a 50% interest in part of the Talmora property, namely the Seahorse project, by spending $1.2 million to test a number of magnetic targets. Work by Olivut, including a Helimag survey of a number of targets and drill testing of targets, is planned for summer 2019.

Talmora retains a 100% interest in the remainder of the property.

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LUCARA ADVANCES ITS CLARA DIGITAL SALES PLATFORM

The processing plant at Lucara’s Karowe mine in Botswana.

CREDIT: LUCARA DIAMOND

L

ucara Diamond’s (TSXdiamond sales platform, LUC) Karowe mine in acquired in early 2018.

Botswana continues to turn Clara had its inaugural out enormous diamonds. sale in late 2018, and two The latest, in April, sales of rough diamonds weighed in at 1,758 carats. totalling $1.4 million While the diamond was recovwere completed in the first quarter of 2019. ered unbroken, the stone is not all Lucara CEO Eira gem quality. Instead, it’s characterThomas explained at The ized as near-gem of variable quality, Northern Miner’s recent including domains of high quality The 812.77-carat white gem.

Constellation diamond, Canadian Mining Symmined at Karowe.

Karowe previously turned out posium in London that CREDIT: LUCARA DIAMOND the 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona the platform is meant to gemstone, which sold for US$53 create a more efficient million. way to buy and sell diamonds.

Lucara expects to recover between “The way we transact diamonds hasn’t 300,000 and 330,000 carats of diamonds changed in over a hundred years. It’s very this year at Karowe and forecasts revenues inefficient, it’s very inflexible,” Thomas at $170-$200 million. said.

In the first quarter, Lucara reported a Clara sells rough diamonds individunet income of US$7.4 million on revenues ally, based on polished characteristics and of US$48.7 million, compared with a year- specific demand. earlier loss of US$7 million on revenues of “All of our test work has demonstrated US$25.4 million. The average price of dia- unlocking throughout the value chain – monds sold during the period was US$512 some to the producer, some to the manper carat. ufacturer – of about 18% to 23% over what we are currently achieving. So it’s a Clara update significant win from a cost perspective and Lucara has also progressed its Clara digital a margin perspective.”

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Thomas said the platform had 10 customers at the time – large integrated jewelry and manufacturing houses – and plans to continue to add buyers. The company also intends to open up the platform to sales from other diamond miners before the end of 2019.

“Clara is a volume story. We believe that our fellow producers will see the immediate benefits of selling on Clara. Not only will they realize higher prices for their diamonds, but they will be selling their diamonds basically in real time. Today, producers only sell their diamonds either every five weeks or in the case of Lucara, once a quarter because we’re a relatively small producer.”

The platform also provides assurance to customers about where their purchase came from via digital tracking.

“The diamond marketplace has been deliberately opaque for a very long time,” Thomas noted. “Clara has the ability to bring transparency. We are tagging diamonds as they’re produced in real time at the mine sites and are able to then follow them through this technology enabled by blockchain right through the value chain, ultimately to the point of final retail sale to that consumer.”

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Gahcho Kué

delivers fancies, large stones

P

artners Mountain Province Diamonds (TSX: MPVD; NASDAQ: MPVD) and De Beers seem to be finding their stride at the Gahcho Kué mine, in the Northwest Territories.

Mountain Province owns a 49% stake in the open pit mine, while De Beers is the majority owner and operator.

The partners are in the early stages of making changes in the plant that will allow them to recover larger and higher quality diamonds at a faster pace. Those changes, which will result in a slightly lower recovered grade, include an increase in sieve sizes to increase tonnes treated.

“The main objective of this initiative is to increase revenue per hour generated in the plant by eliminating lower quality and smaller stones in the early stages of treatment. The benefits of the changes are starting to be seen in the value of the production sold,” the company said in a news release.

Talmora Diamond

A 60.59-carat fancy vivid yellow stone recovered from Gahcho Kué in October.

CREDIT: MOUNTAIN PROVINCE DIAMONDS

The mine is expected to produce 6.66.9 million carats this year, with Mountain Province’s share being a targeted 3.33.45 million carats.

In the first quarter, Mountain Province reported net earnings of $2.5 million on revenues of $60.7 million from sales of 643,739 carats. Prices for the quarter aver-

Horton Project

Inc.

Talmora Diamond Inc. CSE : TAI Shares outstanding: 69,904,801 Contact: Raymond Davies Phone: 416 491 6771 Email: rayal.davies@sympatico.ca

SEARCH FOR LARGE “SUPER-DEEP” DIAMONDS Ice Flow

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Background grid is relative elevation from sea level or ~0m (blue) to ~600m (pink)

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Macro and near-macro diamonds recovered in Darnley Bay till samples General trend of Ice flow

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PseudoRutiles

aged US$71 per carat compared to US$99 per carat in the first quarter of 2018.

In February, Mountain Province sold an exceptional quality, 60.59-carat fancy vivid yellow stone recovered from Gahcho Kué last October. In the same sale, the company also had more than 50 other large, high-quality white and fancy coloured diamonds.

Last year Mountain Province sold more than 400 diamonds larger than 10.8 carats.

Mountain Province also recently released an updated resource for its Faraday 2 kimberlite, which is adjacent to Gahcho Kué. The kimberlite holds 5.5 million carats in 2 million inferred tonnes of kimberlite grading 2.63 carats per tonne. The average value of the diamonds was estimated at US$140 per carat.

Haywood Capital Markets mining analyst Geordie Mark has a buy rating on Mountain Province with a price target of $4.80. The stock was trading at $1.33 at press time.

Abstract In the eastern part of the Lena West region of the NWT paleo-weathering has destroyed most of the pyrope garnets and chrome diopsides which are the traditional KIMs used in diamond exploration, leaving resistant picro-ilmenite and chromite. Mn-ilmenite has been recognised in the area and has chemical compositions similar to those found elsewhere as inclusions in super-deep diamonds. The largest diamonds known are Type IIa and have recently been shown to form at super depths. Mn-ilmenite is therefore an indicator of these high value stones.

Mn-ilmenite and kimberlite pathfinder elements characterise a KIM train off a magnetic anomaly in the area of Seahorse Lake and pseudorutile, a related mineral, characterises a broad KIM train off a cluster of magnetic anomalies in the Horton River area. The pseudorutile train includes three diamonds that Darnley Resources found in field samples and whose source has not been found.

www.talmoradiamond.com

Generated using Darnley Bay, Sanatana and Talmora Datasets

June 2019 v 15

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CORPORATE PROFILE

Rio Tinto starts bulk sample at Star

High-value diamonds from the Star and Orion South kimberlites.

Credit: Star Diamond

It’s been two years since Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO; LSE: RIO) signed an opt-in agreement on Star Diamond’s (TSX: DIAM) Star-Orion South project, and the site, 60 km east of Prince Albert in central Saskatchewan, is buzzing with activity.

In early June, Rio began a 10-hole bulk sample program on the Star kimberlite. The program has taken some time to get started because the equipment that Rio is employing has never been used to collect a bulk sample.

“Rio have put together a very ambitious plan for bulk sampling on both the Star and Orion South kimberlites and they’re using new technology that has been designed specifically for this work,” said George Read, Star Diamond’s senior vice-president exploration and development. “There were many pieces of the puzzle that had to be brought together so that they can utilize this new bulk sampling approach on our diamond properties. The pieces of this very complex puzzle are all coming together.”

Normally used in civil engineering projects, Rio is using a Bauer trench cutter to collect the Star bulk sample. The machine will drill 3.2 by 1.5-metre rectangular holes into the kimberlite to a depth of up to 250 metres and the samples will be taken near the locations of former underground bulk samples and previous large-diameter drilling samples.

The rig excavates the material at depth and pumps it to the surface with a large hydraulic pump as a slurry. The material then goes to a kimberlite separation unit and then to a desanding unit. The kimberlite material is then collected in bulk bags for processing.

The rig, which has been adapted to minimize diamond breakage during sampling, performed well in testing last year.

However, the kimberlite separation unit, designed to recover kimberlite fragments between 0.85 mm and 80 mm, didn’t

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work properly and has been redesigned by Rio. Since it’s a new application for the equipment, Read isn’t sure exactly how long the overall program will take, but all 10 holes at Star are scheduled to be completed by Rio before winter. The bulk sampling at Orion South will follow (20 holes).

A bulk sample plant, which will use XRT sorters to avoid breaking large stones, is currently under construction at the site and Rio indicates that it will be ready to process ore later this year.

Minimizing breakage during sampling and processing is extremely important because of the potential for large, high-value stones at Star-Orion South. While the project’s massive kimberlites are low grade (around 14 carats per hundred tonnes) they host rare Type IIa diamonds. A recent study using a 10,000 carat parcel of stones from the project shows 26.5% of diamonds from the Star kimberlite are Type IIa, as are 12.5% of diamonds from Orion South. Only 2% of diamonds mined from kimberlites worldwide are Type IIa. Rio can earn up to a 60% interest in the Company’s mineral dispositions located in central Saskatchewan (including the Star-Orion South diamond project) over several stages, but it won’t earn an initial stake of 51% until it completes the first two phases of the earn-in agreement. The first is drilling 10 bulk sample holes (or spending $18.5 million) within three years. The second is conducting another 10-hole program (or $18.5 million worth of work) within 18 months.

It can earn the final 9% in two more stages, including the completion of a feasibility study or by spending $33.5 million.

Rio is also evaluating other kimberlites on the Company’s claims in central Saskatchewan, where more than 60 kimberlites have been identified, and in December, staked a large area of claims adjoining Star Diamond’s 100% held ground.

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In February, De Beers announced it was consolidating its assets in South Africa and Canada into one entity called De Beers Group Managed Operations.

At the same time, Nompumelelo (Mpumi) Zikalala was appointed managing director for the group, based in Johannesburg. Ziklala has more than 18 years’ experience in the mining industry, starting out as an ore processing engineer at the Cullinan mine, and most recently as deputy CEO of De Beers Consolidated Mines, responsible for De Beers Group South Africa’s strategy.

Zikalala responded to emailed questions in early June. What follows is a transcript (edited for length) of the questions and responses. continues on page 22

CORPORATE PROFILE

North Arrow investigates Naujaat’s coloured diamonds North Arrow Minerals (TSXV: NAR) is looking to extract a 10,000-tonne bulk sample from its its most advanced project Naujaat, in Nunavut. While the market remains difficult for diamond juniors, North Arrow’s project is unique and offers a compelling reason to advance Naujaat.

The 12.5-hectare Q1-4 kimberlite at the project has a population of coloured diamonds – rare orangey yellow and yellow stones – that could increase the project’s value. In the A28 phase of the kimberlite, 9% of the diamonds (21% by carat weight) recovered so far are from this population. The purpose of the bulk sample will be to evaluate diamond size distribution and value characteristics, with emphasis on that distinct population.

There are currently two initiatives under way that could make a big difference in the cost of a bulk sample at Naujaat. The project is only 7 km from tidewater and 9 km from the Hamlet of Naujaat. The community is in the permitting stage to develop an access trail that would come within 1.5 km of the kimberlite and allow North Arrow to extract the bulk sample without the use of helicopter support. Other potential uses of the trail (aggregate sources, carving stone sources, tourism) could bring an array of economic opportunities to the people of Naujaat.

Assuming permitting and funding are successful, the trail is

Fancy coloured diamonds from North Arrow Minerals’ Naujaat project.

Credit: North Arrow Minerals

scheduled to start construction in September 2019, and then be completed in summer 2020. The bulk sample could follow in August 2020.

The other development that could make the sample less expensive to conduct is through the use of a small-scale mobile diamond recovery plant that would focus recovery on larger diamonds (greater than 3 mm or around 0.5 carat).

North Arrow has initiated an engineering design and costing study of the plant, with Imilingo Mineral Processing, TOMRA, and Microlithics Laboratories investigating design options incorporating TOMRA’s X-Ray transmission (XRT) sorting technology.

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Stornoway stock sinks on liquidity issues

Weak market for smaller diamonds takes toll on junior

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n early 2017, Stornoway Diamond (TSX: SWY) achieved commercial production at its 100% owned Renard diamond mine in Quebec. The junior had a lot to celebrate. It had done the hard work of advancing a diamond mine by itself – one of few juniors to do so. It had overcome untold obstacles – including the infrastructure challenges that come with a remote site, a terrible financing environment in which it managed to raise $944 million, and a volatile diamond market.

But the challenges have never stopped coming for Stornoway.

Problems with diamond breakage in the processing plant made it necessary to invest $22 million in an ore sorting circuit in 2017. Transitioning to underground mining, which is more expensive and challenging than open pit mining, early in the mine life wasn’t easy either. And an oversupply in the market of smaller diamonds (less than 1 carat), which make up twothirds of Renard’s production, led to considerably weaker prices in the second half of 2018.

Late last year, Stornoway had to complete $129 million in financing arrangements (consisting mostly of deferred loan

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payments and amendments to streaming agreements) to shore up its balance sheet. And rather than achieving free cash flow in 2019 as planned, early this year it announced it was initiating a $20-million cost-cutting program to deal with liquidity issues and launching a strategic review to consider its options. Those options include debt restructuring and/or additional financing.

Thc company’s stock price has sunk from around $1 at the beginning of 2017 to 4¢ at press time.

Simply put: “The challenge for the company remains realized diamond prices, which continue to lag pre-production expectations,” said BMO Capital Markets mining analyst Ed Sterck in a May 13 note.

On a conference call, Stornoway’s CFO Dino Rambidis said that while prices stabilized in the first quarter, they have not fully recovered from a 13% dip last year.

In the first quarter, the company received an average price of US$83 per carat compared to US$77 in the fourth quarter of 2018 and US$94 per carat in the first quarter of 2018.

The company reported a net loss of $48.4 million for the period, up from a

net loss of $11 million in the same quarter of 2018.

In light of depressed prices, the company’s focus is its balance sheet. The company’s cash balance fell to $29.5 million by the end of the first quarter, down $6 million, leading to its cost reduction initiative.

“We estimate that Stornoway will remain free cash flow negative and run out of cash by end 2019 if it makes no cost savings, end of Q1/20 if it makes C$10 million of savings and end Q2/20 if it makes C$20 million of savings,” Sterck wrote.

“There is not a huge amount of time under any scenario and Stornoway will still need to refinance approximately C$44 million of debt due in June 2020. We expect the company to need to engage again with its various stakeholders around creating a sustainable structure reflective of realized diamond prices and production costs.”

Paul Zimnisky, an independent analyst, says it’s clear at this point that the project is not a profitable operation at current market prices.

“The best case scenario is they come up with some kind of restructuring package and keep the mine operational for a couple more years and hopefully the supply/

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The challenge for the “ company remains realized

diamond prices, which continue to lag pre-production expectations.

”

— BMO Capital Markets mining analyst Ed Sterck

Underground at Stornoway Diamond’s Renard mine in Quebec.

CREDIT: STORNOWAY DIAMOND

demand fundamentals will be supportive of prices and they can get back to that level of profitability and work from there,” Zimnisky says.

The fact that provincial government entities, such as the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) pension fund are big financial backers of the mine, could help its survival chances.

“At this point I can see it going either way. I can see the government supporting it to try to keep the people employed, hoping that those global supply figures will come in in the next three years,” Zimnisky says. “That should be supportive of prices if we get demand to hang in there.”

Although Stornoway’s production mostly consists of smaller diamonds, it did recover a 189-carat stone of relatively low quality last year, as well as a 37-carat high-value Type IIa stone that sold for US$1.3 million.

While the company missed production expectations for the first quarter because of cold weather related mechanical issues at the plant, Stornoway expects to make up the shortfall during the remainder of the year and has the plant running at or above capacity.

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NWTGEOSCIENCE.CA: E-mail: ntgs@gov.nt.ca T: 867-767-9211 Ext. 63469 NWTMINING.COM: E-mail: mining@gov.nt.ca T: 867-767-9209 Ext. 63160

June 2019 v 19

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FINE CUTS DIAMCOR NEARS PRODUCTION ANNOUNCEMENT

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iamcor Mining’s (TSXV: DMI) Krone-Endora project isn’t a typical diamond development story..

The project, next to De Beers’ Venetia mine in South Africa, is an eluvial deposit, representing a direct shift of material from the Venetia pipe. The gravels at KroneEndora contain high-quality diamonds, but the material is low-grade and variable.

This all makes it difficult to explain to investors.

“It’s a bit tricky when we look at our project and the way people see it. It’s not typical of the fashion that you would see the development of a kimberlite where you have a uniform deposit,” said Diamcor CEO Dean Taylor in an interview at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada conference in March.

“Because the deposit is not uniform, you really can’t advance it in a normal fashion like you would a kimberlite. You can’t really do a PEA or a feasibility – the path for something like this is large-scale trial mining.”

Since acquiring the project in 2011 from De Beers, Diamcor has installed modular processing, dry screening and DMS plants, as well as other infrastructure, including a final recovery and sorting facility that has a large diamond recovery circuit.

With an abundance of very fine mate-

Left: The largest diamond recovered so far at Krone-Endora, weighing 91.7 carats.

Right: The dry-screening plant at Diamcor Mining’s Krone-Endora project.

CREDIT: DIAMCOR MINING

rial that traps water in the deposit, the company has spent a lot of time fine tuning the dry-screening operations to remove as much of the fines as possible before processing.

“We dry screen down to a cutoff of about 1 mm which gives us an effective cutoff rate of under 1 mm for the material,” Taylor says. “We remove 60-65% of the material we recover out of the quarry in that first process. It doesn’t use water, it’s very efficient and low cost – we’re really preconcentrating, so then you can put in a much smaller DMS plant.”

North Kimberley Diamond Project

TSX-V:

LDI

20 v Diamonds in Canada

778.373.1485 info@lithoquest.com Lithoquest.com

The dry screening plant runs at 500 or 600 tonnes per hour while the DMS is about 150 tonnes per hour.

The time spent on dry screening has made a big difference in operations, Taylor says, allowing the company to now focus on ramping up production and finding operational efficiencies.

Currently, the company is running operations with a loss of only 1¢ per share.

Taylor thinks the company could attain profitability this year.

“We want to see the plant working really, really well, and get to the level where the tonnage and the amount we’re running would be profitable. Then we can say, okay we know we can run at these levels so we’re going to make an initial production announcement.”

Taylor also expects average diamond sales prices to rise since the company started to process larger material last November. Before that, the majority of the material processed was under 15 mm with larger material being stockpiled.

The company’s average achieved price to date is US$176.16 per carat. However, in its second tender of 2019, it achieved US$308.06 per carat (1,220.23 carats sold for gross proceeds of US$375,900).

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De Beers Group builds strong presence in Canada

The first of 10 holes Rio Tinto is drilling at Star using a Bauer trench cutter rig.

CREDIT: RIO TINTO

De Beers Group’s 51%-owned Gahcho Kué mine in the Northwest Territories.

Credit: De Beers Group

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n early June, Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO; LSE: RIO) began a planned bulk sample program at Star Diamond’s (TSX: DIAM) Star-Orion South diamond project, 60 km east of Prince Albert, Sask.

The 10-hole program will take place this summer at the Star kimberlite. A 20-hole program is also planned to follow at Orion South.

In 2017, Rio signed an option to earn up to 60% of the project for a total investment of up to $71.5 million over 7.5 years. However, it won’t earn an interest (51%) in the project until it completes the first two phases of work: a 10-hole bulk sampling program (or $18.5 million in spending) within the first three years, plus another 10-hole program (or $18.5 million in spending) within 18 months.

In order to prepare for the bulk sample, Rio has had to tap some new technology. The company has opted to use a modified Bauer trench cutter rig – normally used in civil engineering projects – for the task. The rigs will dig rect-

angular holes 3.2 by 1.2 metres to depths of up to 250 metres.

“The successful use of this new Trench Cutter sampling rig technology for the recovery of kimberlite bulk samples has the ability to revolutionize future bulk sampling and mining of kimberlites, particularly for kimberlites characteristic of the Fort à la Corne diamond district of central Saskatchewan,” said senior vicepresident exploration and development, George Read in a release.

The rig has been modified to minimize diamond breakage.

Star-Orion South is a low grade project (around 14 carats per tonne), but is known to host large stones and rare, high value, Type IIa stones. A recent study of a 10,000-carat parcel of stones from the project showed that 26.5% of Star diamonds and 12.5% of Orion South diamonds are Type IIa vs. only about 2% of mined diamonds globally.

Rio is also building a bulk sample process plant onsite, which will be ready before the end of the year.

De Beers Group Managed Operations – Canada has been active in Canada for more than 50 years from exploration through to the construction and operation of three remote fly-in/flyout diamond mines; the Victor Mine in northern Ontario (2008-2019), the Snap Lake Mine (2008-2015) and the Gahcho Kué Mine (2016 to present), both in the Northwest Territories.

In 2018, De Beers Group added the Chidliak Project on Baffin Island to the portfolio through the $107-million acquisition of Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. De Beers Group has a robust greenfield and brownfield exploration program across Canada, as well as Consumer and Brand presence with more than 35 Forevermark retailers and two De Beers Jewellery stores.

The Gahcho Kué Mine is a Joint Venture with Mountain Province Diamonds (De Beers Group 51% and the Operator). The Victor Mine is entering full closure and the Snap Lake Mine remains in Extended Care and Maintenance. The Chidliak Project is preparing for a 2019 summer drill program and environmental baseline studies.

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Diamonds in Canada:

Congratulations on your new role!

What are your biggest challenges you see ahead of you in terms of both the Canadian and South African operations you are responsible for?

Mpumi Zikalala: I do not see this

transition as a challenge, but as an opportunity to streamline our operational management and leverage on synergies to provide a more sustainable business model in Canada and South Africa – producer countries that are important to us and where we will continue to invest in growing our business.

The recent closure of the Voorspoed mine in South Africa in December, Snap Lake in the Northwest Territories in 2015, and the end of operations on May 26 at Victor in northern Ontario have also created an opportunity for this review.

We need to position our new structure to be ready for growth, and to take on exciting projects like Chidliak in Canada and Venetia Underground in South Africa.

Of course, there will be the usual teething pains that all new structures go through, such as the 8-9 hour time zone difference between South Africa and Canada, depending on the time of year. However, with the right culture and a ‘one-team’ attitude, I believe we will overcome these quickly.

Another significant change is the reorganization of the De Beers Group Technical and Sustainability (T&S) function, which will take accountability for new mining projects, including the Chidliak project, as well as our mine closure portfolio. By consolidating responsibility for mining and closure projects, we will accelerate the deployment of new technology and innovation.

DiC:

Can you speak to some of the plant enhancements that have been made at Gahcho Kué and how well the mine is performing?

MZ:

Gahcho Kué, together with our JV partner Mountain Province, is now entering its third year of operations with incredible mining and production performances, some of which are challenging for best in the entire company portfolio.

During the first two winters, we worked on improving the external conveyors that were exposed to harsh Arctic conditions. This project was very successful and has provided us with reduced down time for maintenance. We also had to get accustomed to the orebodies and adapt to the different kimberlite characteristics following the addition of the Hearne pit into our mine plan last year.

The teams have done an excellent job fine-tuning everything from the feed strategy to planned maintenance programs.

This performance has recently resulted in an increased throughput for the plant, which should see 3.2 to 3.3 million tonnes of treated ore in 2019, and total production of 6.6 to 6.9 million carats this year.

We are also very excited about the current resource extension work that is ongoing in very close proximity to the three pits that make up the mine plan.

The drilling program has been hitting new kimberlite and we believe this has the potential to add to the mine life.

Gahcho Kué is also building a tremendous safety culture. In fact, on June 1st, the Gahcho Kué Mine Rescue Team secured their third consecutive Top Overall Surface Team title at the 62nd North-

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west Territories/Nunavut Mine Rescue Competition, which has earned them a spot in September’s Western National Mine Rescue Competition in Fernie, B.C.

DiC:

We have reported in the past on the innovative approach De Beers intends to take in developing the Chidliak project in Nunavut. What news can we expect to see out of Chidliak this year and next?

MZ:

The Chidliak project has the potential to become our next mine in Canada with an inferred resource of more than 22 million carats. The project team is currently working through a bold concept study, based on the Anglo American ‘FutureSmart Mining’ model.

Like our other sites in Canada, Chidliak is in an Arctic setting, currently only accessible by air. The goal is to run this mine on 100% renewable energy, if possible, with the latest technologies and a small environmental footprint. We are also investigating different mining techniques, expanded use of digital technology in all aspects of the mine, as well as different approach to logistics and supply chain to service the site in non-traditional ways.

The property has dozens of smaller kimberlites, so the team is looking to develop a small, modular operation that is easy to lift and shift from pipe to pipe.

If we can move this from concept to reality, it will not only significantly change our approach to mining, but the industry.

We have an aggressive timeline for the project team, who hope to deliver their project proposal early in 2020. A lot of work is currently under way to support the concept study, which includes a summer drill program on the CH-6 kimberlite and additional environmental baseline studies to build on the work carried out over the last 10 years.

What I like most about the Chidliak project is that it signals our commitment to continue to grow De Beers Group in Canada for years to come. I know that means a lot to our employees, the various levels of government and the communities who we look to build partnerships with to maximize the opportunities for everyone involved.

Informed Analysis of Mining Industry Trends and Activities Expert coverage and analysis of the week’s events in junior mining and exploration provided by The Northern Miner Editor-in-Chief John Cumming, MSc (Geol) and senior staff writer Trish Saywell BA, MA, MSc (Jour).

Distributed through The Northern Miner website and weekly newsletter (both free access) and available on iTunes, SoundCloud and anywhere podcasts are syndicated.

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