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Ticho
Diamond Project
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Exploration 2007
A 500 ton kimberlite bulk sample was successfully
extracted and bagged in September. The 337 bags will be
shipped in October by barge to Hay River and then
transported by road to the De Beers Dense Media Seperation
plant in Grand Prairie for processing.
Drilling is continuing, seeking additional kimberlite
bodies, on the Drybones 4 claim block NE of Mud Lake.
Exploration 2006
Caustic fusion analysis has proven the Mud Lake kimberlite
to be diamondiferous. After several failed attempts, over
the past two years, to extract a 500-ton kimberlite bulk
sample, due to weather and other contingencies, a summer
bulk-sample program has been approved and permitted and,
all preparatory work having been completed, is scheduled
to begin in August 2006. The bulk kimberlite bulk sample
is expected to be shipped in March 2007.
Indicator mineral sampling to the north-east of Mud Lake
has discovered a strong indicator mineral train, that
reaches at least as far as Sipper Lake.
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Exploration 2005
During the early spring, 2005, a location to the
north-west of the Mud Lake area was delineanated, through
drilling, for the extraction of a 500 ton kimberlite bulk
sample. Work is expected to begin in early 2006.
De Beers, at no cost to Snowfield will process the sample
at its Dense Media Seperator facility in Grand Prarie,
Alberta.
Snowfield signed an option agreement with Consolidated
Gold Win Ventures on the GTen16 property.
Exploration 2004
Snowfield expects to commence exploration programs
during September, 2004, including drilling up to 20
diamond drill holes on the Mud Lake kimberlite. These
drill holes are designed to further delineate the Mud
Lake kimberlite discovery to enable Snowfield to conduct
a mini-bulk sample of approximately 500 tonnes of the
Mud Lake kimberlite.
Snowfield has elected to assess the diamond content of
the body by undertaking a bulk sample of the kimberlite
which will provide a considerably higher degree of
accuracy than would be available from a micro-diamond
count from a small sample of drill core.
A large bulk sample is preferred over a smaller sample
since the distribution of diamonds within a kimberlite
tends to be variable and large samples are required to
obtain a representative parcel of diamonds.
Usually, micro-diamond analysis of a small sample from
drill core is the only avenue available for establishing
a diamond content of a kimberlite when the body lies
under a lake or at depth, or is significantly removed
from readily accessible infrastructure.
At Mud Lake these obstacles are not present and
obtaining such a bulk sample is feasible and will enable
Snowfield to assess the diamond content of the body with
a considerably higher degree of precision than would
have been available from the caustic dissolution of the
small core samples obtained from Snowfield's winter
drill program.
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Location
The Ticho Diamond Project is located on the South Slave
Craton, approximately 50 km southeast of Yellowknife,
Northwest Territories.
The Slave Craton is home to Canada's two diamond producing
mines, Ekati and Diavik.
Snowfield’s Ticho Diamond Project benefits considerably
from its proximity to the well-developed infrastructure
available in Yellowknife. Access in the winter is by
ice-road, in the summer by barge, or by fixed wing
aircraft or helicopter throughout the year. This proximity
dramatically cuts the huge costs normally associated with
exploration in Canada’s north.
For example: Drilling costs in the Mud Lake area were $75
per metre all inclusive, compared with upwards of $300 per
metre in more remote locations
The Red Claims (100%)
The Company has a 100% interest in the Red 2, 3, 4, 5,
6 and 7 Mineral Claims which were acquired by
staking,and the Wire claim which is under option.
No exploration has been conducted on these claims by
Snowfield. Exploration for 2004 will include an airborne
EM geophysical survey.
The Company has an option to earn a 100% interest in the
Gten 16 claim. The Gten 16 was optioned to
Consolidated Gold Win Ventures, as to 49%, in April 2005.
A drill program commenced on the property May 1, 2005.
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New Claims Area (80%)
Snowfield can earn an 80% interest in the New Claims area
which consists of the Hurcomb, Drybones 4 and 5, Beck
1, 3, 4, 6, Habanero, Pyrope and Faya claims.
Indicator minerals have been discovered through extensive
till sampling carried out over several years.
The entire area has been subject to an airborne EM
geophysical survey, identitying over 30 high priority
targets.
Drilling in 2003 identified a multi-layered kimberlite
sill complex on the Drybones 4 claim, in the Mud Lake area
Fate Claim (50%)
The Company can earn a 50% interest in the Fate
claim. The property was intially staked to cover
geophysical targets.
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Area History
During 2001-2003 Snowfield optioned or staked a land
package of over 40,000 acres in the immediate area of the
Drybones Kimberlite.
Snowfield has conducted extensive exploration throughout
the area, including an exploratory drill program in early
2003 which was successful in intersecting kimberlite in 9
holes out of 11 at Mud Lake.
The Drybones Bay kimberlite (New Shoshoni) was discovered
in the early 1990s by David Smith, a Yellowknife
businessman and Prospector, and was found to be
diamondiferous by a drilling program conducted in the
mid-1990s by Tradewinds Resources Ltd. New Shoshoni
optioned the property in 2000.
New Shoshoni has
since discovered a further kimberlite pipe on the Drybones
Bay property and retrieved an encouraging parcel of
diamonds.
The
Red Claims (100%)
The Company has a 100% interest in the Red 2, 3, 4, 5,
6 and 7 Mineral Claims which were acquired by
staking,and the Wire claim which is under option.
No exploration has been conducted on these claims by
Snowfield. Exploration for 2004 will include an airborne
EM geophysical survey.
The Company has an option to earn a 100% interest in the
Gten 16 claim. The Gten 16 was optioned to
Consolidated Gold Win Ventures, as to 49%, in April 2005.
A drill program commenced on the property May 1, 2005.
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Previous Exploration
Exploration on the New Claim areas has consisted of
gridding, line-cutting, till-sampling, ground-geophysics,
airborne-geophysics (magnetic and conductivity)
geochemical analysis and exploratory drilling.
Results from this and previous exploration programs have
identified over 30 high-priority bull's eye targets and
significant diamond indicator minerals.
Drilling in 2003 identified a multi-layered kimberlite
sill complex.
Chemical analysis of the drill-core from the Mud Lake
kimberlite revealed diamond indicator minerals that are
known to be found as inclusions in diamonds from
world-class diamond mines such as the Premier Mine in
South Africa and the Udechnaya Mine in Russia.
Diamond Indicator
Minerals
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.
For more on the Mud Lake geochemistry results go
 here.
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Geophysics
Snowfield has re-flown the entire area using a
sophisticated, state of the art helicopter borne
electromagnetic (EM) system. The survey utilized Meridian
Geoscience's Hummingbird Electromagnetic/Magnetic survey
system.
The purpose of the EM survey was to establish whether or
not the magnetic targets, previously identified, were also
EM anomalies. An analysis of this detailed data (50 meter
line spacing) appears to indicate that approximately half
of the magnetic targets show an EM response. A number of
EM anomalies have also been identified with no associated
magnetic signature. Further work is planned on this data
set. This work will include resistivity depth sections and
EM inversion modeling.
For more on the Ticho geophysics and Bull's Eye targets
go
here
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Kimberlite
The Mud Lake kimberlite, the first new kimberlite located
in this area since the discovery of the Drybones Bay
kimberlite in 1994, was identified by Snowfield in its
Phase I drilling program, carried out during the winter of
2002-2003.
The structure of the Mud Lake kimberlite appears to
indicate that it is a shallow dipping multiple-sheet-like
feature. The true thickness of each layer has yet to be
established but the thickness of the first layer is 4 to 6
meters thick. The high indicator mineral counts together
with kimberlite fragments from sample sites down ice
(approximately 100 meters) of the body indicate that the
kimberlite outcrops just below the glacial till cover.
Till cover in this area is approximately 5 meters thick.
For more on kimberlites go
here
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