Updated July 28, 2008 - Analysis

Introduction

The bulk sampling program is underway on the Homestead property and is being carried out by Delta's consultants Apex Geoscience for the purpose of testing for the presence of macro-diamonds.  Simply put, macro-diamonds are diamonds you can see with your eye, and micro-diamonds require a magnifying instrument to view. 

Homestead contains kimberlite on or near the surface, which is a rare occurrence in nature.  Often one must explore at depth to find kimberlite and it isn't always easy to know where to start on the surface.  It can take years to find a kimberlite pipe. Homestead has kimberlite on the surface, which we believe gives us an advantage over other diamond exploration companies. 

Brett Rodli, CEO and President, is hoping the bulk sample will yield positive results. 

"Essentially, we want to see a macro-diamond come from the bulk sample.  That would be the ideal result.  Micro-diamonds would also be a positive indicator, but we are hoping for a macro-diamond.  We were able to quickly find sufficient quantities of the various forms of kimberlite to produce a thorough report.  And now we anxiously wait and see what the laboratory will report to us."

Another advantage of Homestead is its excellent location, with close proximity to state highways and railroads.  This will likely reduce the costs needed to develop and build a mine and extract and transport the minerals.

Bulk Samples

The bulk samples taken from the trenches, consist of removing 15-20 tonnes of HK (hypabyssal kimberlite), 5 - 10 tonnes of xenoliths and 5 tonnes of breccia.  Of the three trenches, Trench #1 will yield provide HK and xenoliths, Trench #2 will yield xenoliths and Trench #3 will yield breccia.  The Apex crew quickly found all the formations needed to complete the bulk samples and began to separate the xenoliths and breccia for future analysis.

The Homestead kimberlite has a striking green color on the surface, which is hard to portray in these images.

Shown to the right are rather large xenoliths which will be sampled and analyzed.  If diamonds are to be found, they are likely to be within xenoliths. 

Although Wikipedia is not the ultimate source of information on diamondiferous deposits, it does provide a concise description.

"Diamond-bearing rock is brought close to the surface through deep-origin volcanic eruptions. The magma for such a volcano must originate at a depth where diamonds can be formed, 150 km (90 miles) deep or more (three times or more the depth of source magma for most volcanoes); this is a relatively rare occurrence. These typically small surface volcanic craters extend downward in formations known as volcanic pipes. The pipes contain material that was transported toward the surface by volcanic action, but was not ejected before the volcanic activity ceased. During eruption these pipes are open to the surface, resulting in open circulation; many xenoliths of surface rock and even wood and/or fossils are found in volcanic pipes. Diamond-bearing volcanic pipes are closely related to the oldest, coolest regions of continental crust (cratons). This is because cratons are very thick, and their lithospheric mantle extends to great enough depth that diamonds are stable...The magma in volcanic pipes is usually one of two characteristic types, which cool into igneous rock known as either kimberlite or lamproite. The magma itself does not contain diamond; instead, it acts as an elevator that carries deep-formed rocks (xenoliths), minerals (xenocrysts), and fluids upward. "

February 6, 2008 Apex Geoscience Revised Post Field Memo

January 15, 2008 Apex Geoscience Post Field Memo

Mantle Xenolith in the 70 cm pit	Mantle Xenolith in the 70 cm pit	Second pit
Mantle Xenoliths separated into bags for transport	Mantle Xenolith in place	Close up of Breccia
Shale contact in breccia trench	Soil profile	Kimberlite pit
Sample loaded onto flatbed truck	All samples on flatbed truck	Flatbed truck ready to transport samples to laboratory.

Three Buttes target	Half Moon target	Rattlesnake Butte Target
Trench #3 - Breccia	Trench #3 - Closer look at the Breccia	Breccia close up
Trench #3	Xenoliths	Green Kimberlite and Orange Breccia Trenches

ANALYSIS

Samples are collected, stored in a specialized sampling bag, secured and loaded onto the truck for delivery to SRC's Geoanlytical Laboratories in Saskatchewan, Canada, where they are processed by Dense Media Separation (DMS) and Caustic Fusion methods.

View the Macro diamond sample processing conducted at the Sasketchewan Research Council Geoanalytical Laboratories Diamond Services (GLDS).

More information available at the SRC website (www.src.sk.ca)

Crusher	Delta's Mantle Xenoliths first crushing at 10mm	Dense Media Separation (DMS)	DMS Scrubber Unit
DMS Feed preparation screen	FeSi Mix Tank	DMS Secure Concentrate glove box	Caustic Fusion process - kiln

Additional Research:

	American Museum of Natural History's presentation of Where Do Diamonds Come From?
	Wikipedia review of Xenoliths >>
	Wikipedia review of Breccia >>
	Review of HK (hypabyssal kimberlite) >>