Pele: Festival Overview

The Festival diamond project is located 25 kilometres north of Wawa along the Trans Canada Highway.  The project holds the mineral rights of a 101-square kilometre patented land package where bulk sampling has recovered commercial size and gem quality diamonds within a suite of ultramafic rocks exposed in intermittent outcrop along a stratigraphic horizon that extends for more than five kilometres.  Festival is a 50-50 joint-venture between Pele and Goldcorp.

In late-2005, Goldcorp Inc. funded a 500-tonne bulk sample program at Festival, consisting of a 300-tonne sample from the Cristal occurrence and two 100-tonne samples from the Deutz occurrence (one each from Upper and Lower stratigraphic layers).  Cristal was the site of past sampling efforts that recovered a 0.72-carat gem quality diamond.  Deutz was the site of a drill program that confirmed subsurface continuity of Festival’s South Zone.

Results from the Festival bulk sample program again confirm the presence of commercial size, gem quality diamonds within the targeted ultramafic volcanics across an extensive area.  Results from Cristal were similar to previous bulk sample data while the Deutz 1 (Upper) and Deutz 2 (Lower) samples indicate for the first time that the South Zone ultramafic mass flow units also contain commercial size, gem quality diamonds.

Following the bulk sample program, Goldcorp had funded sufficient work to earn a 50-percent undivided interest in Festival from Pele.  In December 2006, in accordance with terms of the option agreement, Goldcorp informed Pele that it had elected to form a 50-50 joint venture, and had also elected to terminate its option to earn an additional 10-percent interest in the project.