Pangolin Diamonds (CVE:PAN) said that it has begun diamond core drilling at its Jwaneng South Project in Botswana.
This marks the next phase of exploration for Pangolin at Jwaneng, one of four fully-owned projects in the country. Since the company began activity at the project in 2011, it has identified more than 20 drill-ready kimberlite targets.
The GK6 aeromagnetic drill target, which covers 120 hectares, is twice the size of DeBeers' Jwaneng Mine when it was first discovered in 1972. Jwaneng is the world's richest diamond mine by value, generating approximately US$1.2 billion from eight million carats of annual production.
The drill program at GK6 will consist of at least two core drill holes to a minimum depth of 150 meters, the company said in a statement.
Shares of Pangolin jumped 12.5% on the news, adding to gains of about 218% on the year.
This update follows news in September of the discovery of a volcanic intrusion with "diamond-inclusion type ilmenites" on the Mmadinare diamond project. The five manganese-rich ilmenites returned by independent laboratory analysis were recovered from 20 kilograms of material taken from a discovery pit at a two-metre depth in the central part of the intrusion.
“These findings change the picture dramatically,” chairman Leon Daniels told Proactive Investors. "And to find five diamond inclusion type manganoan ilmenites in a 20 kg sample is very exciting. It is similar to finding five G10 garnets in a 20 kg sample. That doesn’t happen that often, and I’m really excited about this.
The focus of the Mmadinare project is to discover near-surface, high grade diamondiferous kimberlites for in-house diamond production. The project, which covers 1,345.6 square kilometres, has geobotanical features similar to known kimberlites, and similar geological environmental indicators to known mines such as Venetia, the Oaks, Martinsdrift, and River Ranch.