Aug 5 2016
Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. is pleased to announce that core drilling has been completed on three kimberlites and two exploration targets on its 100% owned Sikwane Project, located in the Kgatleng district, south-eastern Botswana.
The drill program successfully intersected the Sikwane kimberlites and has resolved their morphology. Kimberlite material is being collected for future microdiamond analysis. In addition, two new kimberlite targets in the Sikwane area were drill tested. Both targets are explained by magnetic dolerite intrusions.
SIKWANE KIMBERLITE DRILL PROGRAM
Peregrine's Sikwane prospecting licence PL272/2015 covers 453 km2 and contains nine kimberlites discovered through percussion and limited core drilling by De Beers in 1997. This previous work recovered diamonds from surface samples and from down-hole samples at the Sikwane kimberlites, although diamond abundance and size distribution data are not available. Peregrine's recently completed core drill program aimed to constrain geological relationships between kimberlite and country rock granite, and to obtain representative material for microdiamond or kimberlitic indicator mineral (KIM) analysis.
Two separate drill sites were occupied at the Sikwane-01 kimberlite. At drill site #1, three vertical HQ-diameter core holes totalling 49.68 metres were collared within a 3.3 metre horizontal distance from each other, and encountered 5.94 (DD1), 0.85 (DD6) and 0.55 (DD7) metre kimberlite intersects that are interpreted to represent a highly irregular sheet-like kimberlite body intruded at somewhat variable depth within granite. Although clay-altered, the kimberlite retains a fractured, hypabyssal texture.
At drill site #2 on the Sikwane-01 kimberlite, five vertical HQ-diameter core holes totalling 116.07 metres were collared within a 13.6 metre horizontal distance from each other, and encountered 0.20 (DD8), 3.95 (DD9), 8.77 (DD10), 3.10 (DD11) and 3.97 (DD12) metre kimberlite intersects that are interpreted to represent an irregular sill-like kimberlite body intruded within granite. The kimberlite is clay-altered and retains a moderately macrocrystic, hypabyssal texture.
Two narrow kimberlite stringers were intersected in a 38.72 m HQ-diameter vertical hole (DD5) drilled at the known Sikwane-SE occurrence, and another two narrow kimberlite stringers were intersected in a 42.92 m HQ-diameter vertical hole (DD3) drilled at the Sikwane-3 occurrence.
Dr. Herman Grütter, Vice President, Technical Services said "Peregrine's Sikwane drill program has efficiently resolved an irregular hypabyssal intrusive morphology for the drilled Sikwane kimberlites and outlined substantive pinch-and-swell characteristics for kimberlites in the Sikwane cluster as a whole. We are integrating these new data into our exploration models for three contiguous prospecting licenses that we control in the Sikwane region in Botswana and will incorporate the outcomes into future targeting in the region".
Source: https://www.pdiam.com/