The big Lego set. Last year, mechanical engineer Emma Kirk oversaw the re-assembly of 117,000 components that make up the Bulk Sampling Processing Plant. (Ian Gustafson/paNOW Staff)

By Glenn Hicks

diamond search

Critical milestone reached at Project Falcon diamond site

Apr 27, 2020 | 5:00 PM

A major milestone has been reached at the massive diamond exploration project at Fort à la Corne east of Prince Albert.

Star Diamond Corporation is confirming the start up of the long-awaited processing of the bulk samples extracted last year at the Star-Orion site by its partner Rio Tinto.

It’s a critical stage of the project that will test the X-ray and sorting technology of the Bulk Sampling Plant (BSP) required to separate the diamonds locked in the kimberlites that were pulled from 10 drill holes by the enormous trench cutter rig.

Those sample holes went as deep as 250 metres and the processing will determine if both the trench cutter technology and the processing plant are working as hoped for in identifying the quantity and quality of diamonds held in the earth’s grasp.

In a media release, Star Diamond Corporation said the specialized kimberlite sorting and crushing plant is designed to recover any large diamonds present between six and 25 millimetres. Another part of the process then recovers smaller gems, under six millimetres in size.

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The plant was fabricated in South Africa before all 117,000 pieces were shipped in 25 sea containers and then trucked to the site for re-assembly.

Once the work of the BSP is done, those concentrates will be taken, on an ongoing basis, to an off-site facility for final diamond recovery and reporting to Star Diamond and Rio Tinto.

The future of the project hinges in large part on the results of the bulk sampling process. As the engineer in charge of putting the plant together told paNOW last year, the secret is not to break any diamonds as the kimberlites travel through a series of screens and high tech apparatus.

paNOW contacted Star Diamond and Rio Tinto regarding the commencement of the bulk sampling process but neither wanted to offer further comment.

On the legal front, the lack of data so far on the quantity and quality of the diamonds is one of the factors behind Star Diamond’s lawsuit against Rio Tinto regarding what they claim is a breach of their options agreement which gives the mining giant a 60 per cent stake in the venture. Star Diamond claims, among other things, Rio Tinto has failed to provide data in a timely manner.

Rio Tinto denies all allegations and says the sampling results don’t exist and will be provided as soon as they become available.

—

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow