CanAlaska Enters Into $20.4 Million Option with De Beers for Diamond Exploration

CanAlaska Uranium has reported that it has entered into an option-participation agreement with De Beers Canada for expenditures up to $20.4 million on kimberlite-style targets staked by CanAlaska.
As quoted in the press release:

The claims staked by CanAlaska and optioned to De Beers cover 75 kimberlite-style targets developed from a recent high resolution airborne geophysical survey carried out on behalf of the Saskatchewan Geological Survey. The 2011 airborne magnetic survey, flown at 400 metre line spacing, reveals a series of discrete magnetic anomalies northeast of the Carswell structure and close to the large crustal suture related to the Grease River Fault zone. The Saskatchewan Government’s Kimberlite Indicator Minerals (KIM) sampling programs reached close to the Carswell structure, but the northern most samples are southeast of the down-ice trend from these magnetic anomalies.
There is little exploration work in this area of the Athabasca basin. In the Fort McMurray area of Alberta, the sampling for KIM shows a grouping of KIM dominated by chromite, with some pyrope and eclogitic garnets. These appear to be down-ice from the kimberlite-style targets identified within the Athabasca Sandstone in the northwestern Athabasca. Basement rocks below the Athabasca Sandstone form part of the Rae Province, with a projected lithospheric thickness in excess of 150 kilometres, thereby within the diamond stability field. The Rae Province, north of the Athabasca in the Nunavut, hosts diamondiferous kimberlites which have been briefly investigated in the past.

Click here to read the full press release.