A portion of the "New Claim Area" of particular interest to Snowfield is known as the Mud Lake area and is located about 4kms southeast of the Drybones pipe. Extensive exploration work undertaken by David Smith at Mud-Lake over the past several years includes a series of kimberlite
indicator mineral sampling programs.
These were carried out both down ice and up ice from the central Mud-Lake area. These till sampling programs produced numerous indicator minerals, which revealed a number of distinct mineral trains. Ice direction appears to be to the southwest. Up ice data shows no continuation of these mineral trains to the northeast.
It would therefore appear that the source of these indicator minerals is located within the central Mud-Lake area.
Details concerning the most recent sampling program were published by the Geological Survey of Canada ("Chemical characteristics of kimberlite indicator minerals from the Drybones Bay area (NTS 85I/4), Northwest Territories"; D.E.Kerr, I.M.Kjarsgaard and, D.Smith - 2000, GSC Open File D3942).
This report contains a comprehensive description of the sample collection and processing procedures. Electron micro-probe results for the picked indicator minerals are also described in this report. Some 1700 indicator mineral grains were analyzed. The majority of these mineral grains identified appear to be ilmenites, however 504 of these grains were identified as mantle derived Cr-pyropes, 6% of these Cr-pyropes appear to be G10 garnets. Comments from the report include the following;
"A number of Cr-rich and CaO-poor pyrope garnets point to the existence of potentially diamondiferous depleted harzburgite or dunite in the mantle assemblages sampled by the kimberlite(s)."
Some 31 chromite grains were also identified and these were all classified as typical kimberlitic chromites. The conclusion of this report is as follows;
"The relatively large number of indicator minerals recovered in the Mud-Lake till samples is indicative of close proximity to their kimberlitic source, in view of the regional background of zero (0) grains. Ice flow patterns suggest a source likely a short distance up-ice (east/northeast) of these samples because indicator grains originating from the kimberlite(s) would be transported south westward in till."
Aspen Lake and Sipper Lake Areas
Till samples were taken from the Aspen Lake and Sipper Lake locales 750 m to the north and 1.5 km to the northeast, respectively of the Mud Lake kimberlite discovery.
Results from the first 28 till samples from the Aspen Lake and Sipper Lake areas appear to indicate the presence of at least two more kimberlite indicator mineral (KIM) trains that are separate and distinct from the Mud Lake kimberlite occurrence and its KIM train. One train appears to originate from the Aspen Lake area and the second from the Sipper Lake area. Further sampling will be required to locate the source of these KIM grains.
A total of 388 kimberlite indicator mineral grains were picked from 22 out of the 28 till samples, 200 of which are pyrope garnets. In excess of 50% of these kimberlitic grains exhibited partial alteration mantles. In the case of a pyrope grain this is called a "kelyphitic rim" or coating on the grain. Effectively, it means that the grain has not traveled far from the source, since this coating is still visible on the grain. Samples down ice from all three lakes show partial alteration mantles. The identification by ODM of partial alteration mantles (kelyphitic rims on the pyrope garnets and perovskite on the ilmenites) on many of the grains from Aspen Lake and Sipper Lake is very significant, as it indicates that the source of these grains is probably nearby.
The Aspen Lake area is the more promising of the two trains. The presence of magnetic targets under a lake and pond (informally named Aspen Lake and Bull's Eye Pond) approximately 200 to 300 meters "up-ice" from the highest count sample sites is encouraging. Bull's Eye Pond has a distinct "bulls-eye" magnetic anomaly of approximately 20 nT.
Analysis of core from Mud Lake Kimberlite
Crushing, separation and picking of approximately 20,000 grains of kimberlite indicator minerals from sections of the kimberlite core was undertaken at the Kennecott Canada Exploration's mineral processing laboratory in Thunder Bay.
The first parcel of indicator minerals as reported in Stockwatch on June 5, 2003 (NR03-16) included 447 grains and this second parcel comprises an additional 500 grains. The first and second parcel of indicator minerals were forwarded to R.L. Barnett Geological Consulting Inc. of London, Ont., a well recognized microprobe laboratory, where electron microprobe analysis was undertaken on the polished mineral grains for chemical analysis.
The overall range of mineral compositional variation of garnets from the Mud Lake kimberlite provides a remarkable and very interesting data set. The mineral compositions define a distribution of analyses that extend the so-called "Lherzolite trend" to quite uncommon and elevated contents of both chrome and calcium.
The first parcel of kimberlite indicator minerals established a unique mineral compositional variation of garnets and this second parcel further confirms this remarkable and very encouraging data set. The second parcel of kimberlite indicator minerals contained only garnets, including pyrope, eclogitic and "green garnets".
In the first parcel of pyrope garnets, a large percentage were found to contain high chromium oxide (Cr2O3) values between 10 and 15 per cent, with one garnet registering 20 per cent chromium oxide (Cr203) and 9 per cent calcium oxide (CaO).
The second parcel adds more garnets into this chemical compositional range, with one garnet containing 12 per cent chromium oxide (Cr2O3) and 8.5 per cent calcium oxide (CaO) and a larger number of G10 garnets than in the first parcel. These two parcels of pyrope garnets fall within the chemical compositional range that is known to co-exist with diamonds.
In the first parcel approximately 20 per cent of the eclogitic garnets were found to have sodium oxide (Na2O) levels greater than 0.07 per cent.
Sodium oxide (Na2O) values in the second parcel were much higher with some grains as high as 0.11 per cent.
These two parcels of high sodium oxide (Na2O) eclogitic garnets fall within the chemical compositional range that is known to be associated with diamonds.
Chromite analyses from the Mud Lake kimberlite core are encouraging in that a large percentage of the chromite grains returned values in the range of 60-65% wt % Cr2O3.
Chromites with values of Cr2O3 greater than 62.5% and MgO percentages between 11-16% fall within the diamond inclusion field.
One chromite grain sampled from the Mud Lake kimberlite drill core returned a composition of Cr203 of 66% and 12.4% Mg0, clearly falling within the diamond inclusion field.
In the first parcel of "green garnets" many grains had compositions with approximately 15 to 20 per cent calcium oxide (CaO) and 12 per cent chromium oxide (Cr2O3).
The second parcel contains significantly more grains of "green garnets" with compositions in the range of 13 to 22 per cent calcium oxide (CaO) and 6 to 17 per cent chromium oxide (Cr2O3).
These two parcels of "green garnets" offer a unique distribution of mineral composition that fall within the miscibility gap between pyralspite (pyrope-almandine-spessartine) and ugrandite (uvarovite-grossular-andradite).
Review of the published information on kimberlites worldwide reveals that "green garnets" with similar chemical compositions as those found in the Mud Lake kimberlite, fall in the same compositional range as reported in a number of diamond bearing kimberlites including Premier, Kampfersdam, Newlands and Bultfontain mines in South Africa and at the Udachnaya mine in Russia.
To the Company's knowledge, such garnet compositions from the Mud Lake kimberlite are the first known occurrences of such mineral compositions to be found in bedrock in the Slave Craton. This data set is a significant indication of the potential for finding diamonds in the Mud Lake kimberlite body.
Evaluation of the data allows the possibility that there might be a second kimberlite body within the Mud Lake area. It is important that more G10 garnets were selected from till samples than were selected from the Mud Lake kimberlite.
These till sampling programs produced numerous indicator minerals, which revealed a number of distinct mineral trains. Ice direction appears to be to the southwest. Up ice data shows no continuation of these mineral trains to the northeast.
It would therefore appear that the source of these indicator minerals is located within the central Mud-Lake area. 
