Diamonds & Specialty Minerals Summary for Dec. 24, 2013
2013-12-24 10:43 PT
by Will Purcell

Pikoo Diamond Exploration

Pikoo project location (North Arrow)

Grenville Thomas and Ken Armstrong's North Arrow Minerals Inc. (NAR: $0.67) is waiting to hear if Matt Manson's Stornoway Diamond Corp. (SWY: $0.74) will exercise its back-in right on the Pikoo diamond play in Northern Saskatchewan. North Arrow has just earned an 80-per-cent interest in the grassroots play but Stornoway can claw back a 20-per-cent interest by repaying North Arrow triple its exploration expenses. The clock on that 60-day back-in right began ticking Nov. 18. Stornoway declined a similar right on the Timiskaming property earlier this year after a North Arrow drill program found nothing. At Pikoo, North Arrow hit kimberlite in several drill holes, including multiple hits into the PK-150 kimberlite. That rock produced the best diamond counts ever obtained in Saskatchewan. A 210-kilogram batch yielded 745 diamonds, including 23 that sat on a 0.85-millimetre mesh. Those stones weighed 0.28 carat, suggesting a commercial diamond content topping one carat per tonne. The small sample size and the erratic size distribution curve leave many questions unanswered so Stornoway may consider Pikoo just an exploration diversion from its planned $750-million mine at Renard in Quebec. North Arrow will undoubtedly do more drilling at Pikoo for next year. That work will include more exploration drilling and probably more tests of PK-150.

Related: North Arrow Minerals discovers diamonds in Saskatchewan

www.stockwatch.com