Chalice Diamond Corp. has staked and optioned over 200,000 acres of land for diamond exploration in the Wawa – Chapleau area of Ontario.

This large land package, lying within an old Archean Greenstone belt, hosts a prolific quantity of diamonds.Recent diamond discoveries by Dianor Resources immediately to the west and the macro-diamond kimberlite dike lying in BaderTownship to the east set the stage for an exciting diamond play.

Compilation work on this new project, followed by field work is demonstrating the potential for kimberlite pipes, dikes and possibly lamproites containing large diamonds.

FAVOURABLE GEOLOGY

The Wawa – Chapleau Project area is underlain by the Archean age Michipicoten Greenstone Belt (MGB) and older basement granitoid rocks.Being Archean in age, the MGB was emplaced when the crust of the earth was much thinner than it is today.The MGB also has the greatest number of diamond occurrences in Archean rocks in Ontario and possibly in all of North America.The diamonds occur in a variety of unusual Archean rocks with a large percentage being micro diamonds.However, gem quality macro-diamonds have also been found.

Dianor’s recent discovery on the Leadbetter property near Wawa may prove to be the largest concentration of diamonds ever discovered in North America.

Why are diamonds so plentiful in the MGB?Part of the answer might be in the fact that diamonds are formed just below the bottom of the earth’s crust in the upper mantle.Given the earth’s crust was much thinner in the Archean time, the potential to have diamonds brought up to surface into the MGB by kimberlite dykes, pipes or thrust faulting, similar to ophiolite rocks today, may have been greater.However, there are many Archean age greenstone belts in the world that were formed when the crust was thinner.Therefore, why don’t those greenstone belts contain a large number of diamonds?

The reason for the propensity of diamonds found in a variety of rock types in the MGB may also lie in the nature of the mantle under the MGB.The mantle may be of a chemical and physical composition enriched in carbon and/or other elements that result in substantial diamond formation.Therefore, a mantle pregnant in diamonds may exist under the MGB but not elsewhere.

Assuming the mantle in the Wawa-Chapleau area is more pregnant than elsewhere then the potential to find diamonds in kimberlite pipes, dikes, or lamproites would be greater, i.e.:“Where there is smoke there is fire.”

Chalice Diamond Corp. has compiled regional and detailed geological, geophysical, geochemical and structural data for the Wawa-Chapleau area to identify favourable areas for diamond exploration.Follow-up by field crews in the targeted areas has demonstrated that kimberlite dykes cutting through Archean and basement rocks contain diamonds and the chemistry of one dike to date indicates the potential for large diamonds.

Chalice Diamond Corp.’s kimberlite dike in Bader Township with large diamond potential has recently been trenched and is 1 to 1.5 metres wide, subvertical in dip, has been followed for 150 metres along strike, and is open in all directions.The quantity and quality of diamonds in the dike needs to be fully assessed.For size comparison, Debeers Snap Lakediamondiferous kimberlite dike that they plan to bring into production is 2.5 to 3 metres wide with a shallow dip.The Snap Lake Dike is also located in the remote Northwest Territories and is only accessible by air or winter road.Whereas, Chalice Diamond Corp.’s dike is accessible by road year round, and has rail, hydro and infrastructure within a few kilometres.

Chalice Diamond Corp. is aggressively pursuing the Wawa-Chapleau diamond project given the prolific number of diamonds found in the MGB combined with new evidence of large diamond potential.