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Junior miner finds diamond while looking for silver, cobalt

Brixton Metals intersects kimberlite body on Temiskaming property
Langis kimberlite
(Brixton Metals photo)

Brixton Metals has recovered a diamond from its exploration property near New Liskeard.

In an Aug.30 news release, the Vancouver silver and cobalt explorer announced the discovery of a kimberlitic body at its Langis project, north of Lake Temiskaming.

During drilling, kimberlitic breccia was encountered and the company sent 53.6 kilograms of rock to SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories Diamond Services in Saskatoon for analysis.

Micro diamonds recovery tests returned one diamond from a drill hole. The diamond weighs 0.0112 milligrams.

Brixton is working a property that includes the former Langis silver mine.

The company reported three drill holes encountered kimberlitic breccia directly beneath the overburden at a depth ranging between 22 metres and 40 metres.

“We are very intrigued by this discovery,” said Brixton chairman-CEO Gary Thompson in a statement.

“We were targeting cobalt-nickel-silver mineralization in the shallow Archean rocks when we encountered the kimberlitic material. The fact that we recovered a diamond fragment given that the kimberlite sample size was very small is an exciting discovery.

“This has piqued our interest as to whether a very large kimberlite pipe or a series of pipes exists.”

The company plans to do further drilling to test the extent of the kimberlitic body. They’re also bringing in top diamond experts to help with the assessment of the new discovery.

“This is definitely an interesting time for Brixton and for the Langis project,” added Sorin Posescu, vice-president of exploration.

“We are excited to have discovered diamond bearing kimberlitic rocks and look forward to doing additional work to understand the full extent and the economic potential of this discovery."

Brixton owns the former Langis and Hudson Bay mines in the Temiskaming area.

In its heyday, Langis produced 10.4 million ounces of silver at 25 ounces per ton (oz/t), along with 358,340 pounds of cobalt. The Hudson Bay mine produced 6.4 million ounces of silver at 123 oz and 185,570 pounds of cobalt.