« Back | Main | Printer-Friendly Version

June 13, 2005

Attawapiskat Joint-Venture

The Attawapiskat JV is set in a remote and uninhabitedregion, without facilities or infrastructure. The Property can be accessed by helicopter or plane, with seasonal restrictions, from Timmins, Hearst, Cochrane, and Moosonee. A winter road, built and developed by De Beers (for their Victor Project), links Moosonee with the Cree community territory and crosses the Northern corner of the Attawapiskat Property. However, this road does not connect to the provincial road network.

The Attawapiskat kimberlite cluster was discovered by Monopros Ltd. (former Canadian exploration arm of De Beers), following exploration work spread out over many years. The dispersion fan of alluvial diamond inclusion minerals was followed for 375 km, down to the Geraldton area. Extensive airborne magnetometer surveys and ground prospecting enabled the company to locate, in 1987, the first kimberlitic boulders on the Attawapiskat riverbed. In the following year, Monopros located 16 kimberlitic intrusions, 14 of these being diamond-bearing. Subsequently, Spider Resources located two other intrusions (MacFadyen 1 and 2), and the latest one was recently discovered by Canabrava-Navigator (AT-56). The 5 intrusions of the Kyle Lake swarm, further to the west are also noteworthy. According to Rejean Girard, the author of the qualification report for Big Red Diamond's Initial Public Offering, this project represents the most systematic exploration campaign undertaken to this day in the region.

BRDC began staking in the Attawapiskat area and, by May 3, 2001, had staked 58 claims covering 14,000 ha when it entered into a joint venture agreement, on May 7, 2001, with Canalaska Ventures to explore and develop some of these claims. Canalaska withdrew from this agreement due to financing difficulties in late 2001.

BRDC entered into a joint venture agreement with KED on May 10, 2001, which agreement was amended on December 3, 2002 (the ’ÄúBRDC-KED Joint Venture Agreement’Äù or ’ÄúBRDC-KED Joint Venture’Äù). The Agreement was to stake (to the 29 claims already held by BRDC) an additional 94 claims covering approximately 23,000 ha in the Attawapiskat area. A further 32 claims were staked following a 21,000 line kilometre airborne magnetometer survey, bringing the total area in the BRDC-KED Joint Venture to 76,500 ha.

In January, 2003, KED entered into a joint venture agreement with Dumont Nickel, which granted access to further claims in the area to the BRDC-KED Joint Venture, based on certain conditions.

AntOro was offered participation on the project at a later date, details of which are to be found in the news releases herewith attached.

The Attawapiskat JV is located in the middle of the James Bay Lowlands, which are made of a Palaeozoic carbonate sequence unconformably overlying the Archean crystalline basement of the Superior Province. These two elements are cornerstones in terms of the potential for diamonds in the region.

Posted by Webmaster | Filed as Ontario Property

Related Documents