Vaaldiam reports macrodiamond results

Vaaldiam Resources Ltd., South America’s largest diamond producer through the 100% ownership of two producing mines in Brazil, reports the 2007 macrodiamond results from minibulk samples taken from its totally owned Candle Lake C29/30 kimberlite pipe.

The large 70 hectare C29/30 kimberlite pipe is situated in the northern end of the Fort á la Corne Kimberlite Field in central Saskatchewan, one of the world’s largest diamond bearing kimberlite fields.

A total of 370 macrodiamonds larger than 0.85 mm were recovered from 632.94 tonnes of kimberlite. The total weight of the recovered diamonds is 13.99 carats.

Brent Jellicoe, VP Exploration and Evaluation of the company said that the recovery of larger stones is positive and may indicate a large stone potential in the C29/30 kimberlite.

Larger tonnage samples are required in order to determine a more representative average grade and diamond value and to determine if a significant large stone population is present in this large kimberlite body. This is critical to establishing the economics of the diamond resource.

A total of 632.94 tonnes of kimberlite was excavated from nine large diameter reverse circulation drillholes completed during the first quarter of 2007. Diamond results were allocated to distinct kimberlite units for evaluation of grade and distribution of diamond in the body.

According to the company, recovery of the 370 macrodiamonds included 31 stones larger than 0.1 carats of which eight were larger than 0.3 carats. The two largest diamonds recovered from the program were from the kimberlite #1 unit and weighed 0.91 carats and 0.43 carats.

Candle Lake diamonds appear to be very similar in terms of colour, clarity, and gem abundance to those recovered to date in the rest of the Fort á la Corne Kimberlite Field – that is, there is a large proportion of white and near white stones with few inclusions.

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