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  Candle Lake (Great Western Minerals Group Ltd.)  
 
The Company (Great Western Minerals Group Ltd.), formerly an 80% partner with War Eagle Mining Company Inc. (20%) in the Candle Lake Joint Venture (CLJV), has negotiated the purchase of 100% of the project. The property covers approximately 38 claims covering 50,000 acres in the Candle Lake-Whiteswan Lake area of Saskatchewan.

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Exploration work carried out in 1993 and 1994 by the CLJV resulted in the discovery of two diamond-bearing kimberlite pipes. The property was optioned to Kennecott Canada Inc. in 1995, and delineation drilling carried out by Kennecott indicated that Pipe 29/30, the northern-most of the kimberlites, contained over 60 million tonnes of kimberlite and Pipe 28 contained six million tonnes. Projected grades from the delineation drilling were reported as high as 27 carats per 100 tonnes.

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In 1997, a mini-bulk sample was attempted on Pipe 29/30 using reverse-circulation drilling. This program ran into difficulty and it took two field seasons to complete two holes. In the end only 7.5 tonnes of fine material was recovered, representing less than 50% of the total theoretical weight of kimberlite in the holes. Despite this, several diamonds averaging 0.08 carats were recovered. The stones were of high quality, but the majority were fractured during drilling. The results were not encouraging enough for Kennecott to justify their continued participation and they terminated their option.
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In the fall of 2000, a ground resistivity survey was completed in the vicinity of Pipe 29/30 and Pipe 28. This type of survey has been used very successfully in other parts of the province to locate thicker areas of the kimberlite, and lesser magnetic kimberlite. As a result, several drill targets were selected from the resistivity data and the sites prepared for drilling.

In July and August 2002, three HQ-size (2.5 inches diameter) core holes were completed on Pipe 29/30. Hole WSL-8 was spotted 250m east of WSL-5 on a weak resistivity anomaly and failed to interesect any significant kimberlite. Drill holes WSL-9 and WSL-10 were drilled on a line between WSL-3 and WSL-5, 200m and 100m northwest of WSL-3 respectively. WSL-9 intersected approximately 75m of kimberlite and WSL-10 intersected 107m of kimberlite-the thickest to date on 29/30.

25 random samples from WSL-10 were sent to the Saskatchewan Research Council laboratory in Saskatoon for diamond recovery using caustic fusion. The result was the recovery of 126 diamonds from 170kg of sample material, including diamonds with one dimension larger than 0.5mm. In terms of diamonds recovered per kg of sample, these are the best results to date at Candle Lake and among the highest in the province.

The remaining samples will be processed once the property is transferred to Great Western Diamonds Corp. - the wholly-owned subsidiary of Great Western Minerals created to focus solely on diamond exploration.

 

  
 
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