The Northern Miner, 6/27/2008
Angola reveals more of itself to Metalex
Metalex Ventures' (MTX-V) faith in Angola continues to yield positive exploration results.
While the sub-Saharan country stands as the world's fourth largest diamond producer, exploration was stunted by a civil war which tore it apart from 1975 until 2001.
With the situation now relatively stable Metalex is looking to make up for some of that gap in exploration via its Chitamba property.
Its latest results indicate its headed in the right direction, as the company hit four kimberlitic pipes -- although it does not yet know if they are diamondiferous.
With the new discoveries Metalex has now found a total of 13 pipes on the property which sits at the headwaters Cuango River – a well known source for alluvial diamonds.
Metalex intends to discover the source of those alluvial diamonds and in the process help rebalance Angola's current preference for diamond mining. The country has produced roughly two thirds of its diamonds from alluvial sources with only one third coming from mining kimberlites.
As for the most recent results the company says technical problems meant drilling the first kimberlite was halted after just 7 metres of drilling. The pipe, however, was hit after just 1.5 metres of drilling so 200 kg was still collected by pitting.
A magnetic survey flown by helicopter puts the size of the pipe 2.3 hectares.
The second kimberlite was intersected from a depth of 3.35 to 172 metres with geophysics suggesting the pipe is 0.5 hectares in size.
The third pipe was hit near surface while the company was readying the drill. A 200 kg sample was collected by pitting. Metalex says the pipe is roughly 3.1 hectares.
As for the fourth pipe, the company says rugged topography meant it had to drill an inclined hole directed towards the center of the target. The drill hit minor stringers of kimberlite at depth and a 200 kg sample of the kimberlitic pipe was collected by pitting at the center of the anomaly.
Results from the first three holes and the first follow up heavy mineral samples are expected within two weeks.
Metalex has diamond exploration projects in Canada's "Ring of Fire", Attawapiskat, Kyle Lake, and Wawa, as well as Greenland, Mali and Morocco. The company is headed by Chuck Fipke, famed for discovering the Ekati mine.
In Toronto on June 27, Metalex shares were up 3% or a penny to 38¢ on roughly 276,000 shares traded. Metalex has roughly 93 million shares outstanding its share price has moved between 18¢ and 55¢ over the past 52-weeks.
