Diamond Rumors

Diamond Rumors report
Diamond Rumors map

Since the discovery of the diamond-bearing kimberlite pipes in the Northwest Territories in the early 1990s, there has been an extensive amount of capital invested in exploration and development in the search for diamonds. The focus of this investment has been predominantly in the N.W.T., however some of the exploration activity has spilled into nearly every province and territory in Canada. More than ten years after the discovery on Point Lake we can attribute to this investment an operating mine at Ekati, a soon to be operating mine at Diavik, a third mine in the feasibility and permitting stage at Snap Lake and a number of advanced-stage exploration projects.

Significant new discoveries continue to be made as exploration continues. In the spring of 2002, Vancouver-based Pacific Ridge Exploration Ltd announced the discovery of a diamond from a sample of kimberlitic material on the eno Property in northern British Columbia. At the same time, Calgary-based Golconda Resources Ltd and Edmonton-based S hear Minerals Ltd jointly announced the discovery of diamond-bearing tuffaceous "maar-like" rocks from their Shulin Lake Property north of Anchorage, Alaska.

Since the Klondike gold rush there have been a number of rumors of diamond finds in the Yukon and anecdotal evidence of diamond exploration activity and discoveries of kimberlite and lamproite. Most of the diamond finds w ere reported by placer miners, having discovered the glassy gems in their concentrate. Following the discovery of diamonds in the N.W.T. a few diamond exploration companies have quietly explored selected localities in the Yukon. However, during this time there has not been a documented occurrence of a diamondiferous kimberlite, lamproite or ultramafic rock in the territory. Despite this, there are discoveries being made to the south, east and west.

This report is a compilation of information on diamond discoveries and rumors of discovery in and around Yukon. The objective of the study was to assemble, in one source, all presently available information on diamond discoveries and potential diamondiferous host rock occurrences in the Yukon and surrounding regions of Alaska, N.W.T. and British Columbia. This information was derived from personal conversations with placer miners, prospectors, geologists and mining company executives, and from unpublished notes, media reports, government publications and assessment reports. The authors have not personally verified any of the diamond occurrences cited in this report.

Yukon Emeralds

Since 1997 there have been  two discoveries of emeralds in or near the Yukon Territory! Significant emerald localities in North America are rare. A small but quality emerald could easily be worth in excess of $10,000.

The first discovery of emeralds in the north, was made in 1997 by Whitehorse-based prospector Ron Berdahl. He discovered vanadium-rich emeralds near the Lened tungsten showing the westernmost N.W.T. adjacent to the Yukon border. The property is currently owned by Liberty Mineral Exploration Inc.

The Lened Property is underlain by a rare-element enriched two-mica pluton and associated rare-element pegmatites. There are two other nearby two-mica plutons, locally known as the CAC and the RUDI.

Emeralds on the Lened property are associated with phlogopite schist developed along the contact zone between a rare-element pegmatite and Devonian-Mississppian black shales. The emeralds are vanadium-rich, transparent to translucent emeralds and are up to 2 cm long and 0.50 cm wide.

While exploring a base metal geochemical soil anomaly on one of its Yukon properties in the autumn of 1998, Expatriate Resources' field geologist, Bill Wengzynowski, discovered a second occurrence of emeralds at Regal Ridge (now known as the Tsa da Glizsa property). About one kilogram of emeralds were collected from float and outcrop during a two-hour examination within a 30 x 100 m area.

In a preliminary report, industry expert J.H. Montgomery wrote that the geological setting of the Expatriate emerald deposit closely resembles the setting of deposits in one of the worlds major emerald producing areas. "Many of the emeralds are corroded translucent and fractured, but some near gem-quality stones are present. It is suspected that intense chemical and physical weathering may be responsible for some of the flaws".

The occurrence is in the Finlayson Lake area of southeastern Yukon. The geological setting is similar to "schist-type" occurrences where quartz-tourmaline pegmatites cut phlogopite and chlorite-bearing schist.

This information and photographs are displayed courtesy of Expatriate Resources and from a story published in the December 2, 1998 issue of the Whitehorse Star.

Expatriate undertook a small exploration program on the property between 1999 and 2001 and uncovered numerous other occurrences within a small portion of the property.

Since that time ownership of the Tsa Da Glizsa property has been changed to True North Gems (in 2002), and extensive exploration programs since then have consisted of surface trenching, mini-bulk sampling, drilling, soil geochemical sampling and regional prospecting with very positive results.

Additional and more current information showing the results are available from the True North Gems website at: http://www.truenorthgems.com/

The possibility of emerald occurrences in the Yukon were first suggested by Lori Walton (prior to their discovery) in her Open File entitled EXPLORATION CRITERIA FOR GEMSTONE DEPOSITS AND THEIR APPLICATION TO YUKON GEOLOGY. This publication is available as Open File 1996-2 (G).

Information about pegmatites is contained in GRANITE PEGMATITES IN THE CANADIAN CORDILLERA YUKON AND NORTHWEST TERRITORIES by Lee A. Groat, T. Scott Ercit, James K. Mortensen and Mark H. F. Mauthner, Open File 1995-14 (G) and GRANITIC PEGMATITES IN NORTH - WESTERN CANADA by Lee A. Groat, Open File 1996-3 (G). These publications can be ordered using our Order Form on our Publications page.