Qeqertaa Diamond
The Qeqertaa diamond project area is located in the vicinity of Arveprinsen Ejland in eastern Disko Bay. In 2007 Avannaa made a new diamond discovery in an ultramafic lamprophyre dyke on Qeqertaa island in license 2007/52. The dyke is at a highly accessible fjord-side location some 50 km north of Ilulissat (Greenland’s second largest town) and 22 km from the Pakitsoq hydropower plant.
In the 2007, 2008 and 2009 field seasons Avannaa has collected a 39 kg, 443.5 kg and 10.2 tonne sample respectively. The diamond results are tabulated below and an interpretation presented in the following graph.
During 2010 a total of 1130 m of core was taken from 14 drill locations along the strike of the Qeqertaa dyke. The dyke intersections collected by drilling have been sent to SGS in Canada for analysis by caustic fusion. In addition to the core data a 62 tonne sample was collected during 2010. 12 tonnes will be stored for future analysis and 50 tonnes is currently undergoing diamond assay. The host rock contains a high proportion of magnetite and as a consequence conventional dense media separation techniques proved ineffective. New procedures have been developed to process the rock; these are initial separation using high voltage current performed by SelFrag in Switzerland followed by magnetic separation and dense media separation conducted by GTK in Finland. A 100 kg test run has been successfully completed and the main processing of 50 tonnes is underway. Final results are anticipated by March 2010.
The Qeqertaa dyke is sub-vertical and drill intersections indicate an ore body thickness ranging from 1-20 m with an average of 5 m. The potential tonnage is estimated to be in the range 10-20 million tonnes.
The dyke is one of many dykes of kimberlitic-lamproitic affinity that occur in this region that have been mapped as “ultramafic lamprophyres” by survey geologists. It should be noted that whilst these rocks have been called ultramafic lamprophyres, this has been used as a field term to describe any potassic ultramafic rock and does not preclude a kimberlite or lamproite classification.
To assist with prospecting for new dykes Avannaa has acquired a total of 3300 line km of airborne magnetic data. Ground testing of new dykes identified on the aeromag data was performed in July and August 2010 and caustic fusion of grab samples is in progress at SGS in Canada. 
