Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 6, 1994 TAG: 9402060078
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: KOALA CAMP, NORTHWEST TERRITORIES LENGTH: Medium
The Great Canadian Diamond Rush is on, setting hearts aflutter, stock traders agog, pockets jingling and bush pilots rejoicing.
Chuck Fipke, a tenacious Canadian geologist, found diamonds in the Lac de Gras region two years ago, and excitement swept the Northwest Territories. Canada has not seen such a binge of prospecting since the Klondike gold rush in the Yukon a century ago.
"As a government, we're really excited," said George Patterson, a geologist and the territory's director of mineral policy. "The potential is immense."
Since November 1991, when the first test drilling by Fipke's Dia Met Minerals turned up diamonds, 237 companies have staked out nearly 75,000 square miles in the biggest mineral rush in Canadian history.
BHP Minerals, an Australian giant that signed a joint venture with Dia Met, is digging a 5,000-ton "bulk sample" at this site 200 miles north of Yellowknife to determine if mining is economically feasible.
Engineers are notoriously conservative and seldom admit they have diamonds until the first wheelbarrow-full has been mined. But geologists, stock analysts, government officials and businessmen - more prone to be ecstatic - expect it to rain money.
"In 20 years of analyzing mining projects, never have we worked with figures as spectacular as those in the Lac de Gras diamond discoveries," wrote David James, an analyst for the Richardson Greenshields investment company.
"Canada is going to be the next South Africa," said Christopher Jennings, a South African diamond expert.
Diamonds are formed from carbon under immense heat and pressure deep underground and forced to the surface by volcanic rock known as kimberlite. Carrot-shaped formations called kimberlite pipes often contain diamonds, but not always of sufficient quantity or quality for profitable mining.
by CNB