Iqaluit flashes a green light for Peregrine on the Road to Nowhere

Tom Peregoodoff, executive vice president, and David Willis, lands administrator for Peregrine Diamonds Ltd., met with Iqaluit’s planning and development committee of the whole Nov. 17 to seek council’s approval for use of the Road to Nowhere as part of a winter trail to the company’s Chidliak site, 120 kilometres from the city. If the diamond project turns out to be viable, a mine could start up there by 2020, Peregoodoff said. (PHOTO BY PETER VARGA)

Peregrine Diamonds Ltd. promises to make sure Iqaluit’s Road to Nowhere leads somewhere this winter, when it creates an overland snow trail to its Chidliak project site.

Iqaluit’s planning and development committee of the whole agreed, Nov. 17, to let the diamond exploration company use of the city’s nine-kilometre stretch of unpaved road this winter and into the spring of 2015, as the starting point for a 170-kilometre long winter trail to its project site.

The trail would let Peregrine collect the next batch of bulk samples it needs to prove that Chidliak has enough potential for a possible diamond mine some time in the future.

“If all goes well in 2015, and we get positive bulk sample results, we’ll be moving into a pre-feasibility stage in 2016 and 2017, all leading up to potential mine-opening, and construction and mine-opening occurring some time in the late part of 2019 or 2020,” Tom Peregoodoff, executive vice president of Peregrine, told council.

The Chidliak property covers 748,000 hectares of land, located 120 kilometres directly east and north of Iqaluit.

Eight diamond-bearing deposits on the property, known as kimberlites, contain diamonds in concentrations potentially high enough to start a diamond mine, Peregoodoff said.

Samples drawn from one deposit in 2013, known as CH-6, contain an estimated concentration of 2.8 carats per tonne of kimberlite rock — which is on par with diamond mines in the Northwest Territories, he said.

Peregrine’s bulk-sampling operation this winter and spring will be similar to the sampling operation it undertook in 2013. This time, the company will draw samples from three kimberlite deposits, using a large-diameter drill rig, Peregoodoff said.

As in 2013, equipment will move to and from the site on the winter trail, with unpaved nine-kilometre stretch of Iqaluit’s Road to Nowhere serving as the gateway to the city.

Workers will pack hundreds of tons of sample rock into sealed bags and truck the them to Iqaluit for shipping south. There, the company will assess the samples for diamond content.

Peregrine will also install a winter airstrip at the site, to transport larger pieces of equipment by air.

The winter trail to Chidliak will cover up to 80 km of the traditional Iqaluit-Pangnirtung trail, often used by hunters or travellers between the two communities.

The remaining 90 or more kilometres of the trail leads eastward to the Chidliak site.

In response to complaints from snowmobile users of the trail in 2013, Peregrine will groom the trail this winter, every time heavy equipment moves through it.

Workers will drag a groomer behind its convoys to make the trail “more user-friendly” for snowmobilers, Peregoodoff said.

Peregoodoff and David Willis, lands administrator for Peregrine, said the trail will only accommodate vehicles that run on wide tracks and snowmobiles.

The snow will not be packed hard enough for conventional trucks, cars or other wheeled vehicles, they said.

Peregrine also requested permission to use a staging area on the unpaved section of Iqaluit’s Road to Nowhere, located just 150 metres east of the nearest apartment blocks.

The city’s director of planning and development, Mélodie Simard, noted that a large section of the unpaved Road to Nowhere, identified as “the trail head” of Peregrine’s winter road, is within lands reserved for the new Road to Nowhere subdivision.

Construction of the new subdivision would begin in the summer of 2016, and not overlap with Peregrine’s operations on the road, she said.

Councillors unanimously agreed to allow Peregrine to use the nine-km portion of the winter trail that falls within municipal boundaries for the duration of the 2014 to 2015 winter and spring seasons.

Speaking of the potential for a diamond mine just outside Iqaluit, Peregoodoff said Peregrine is “cautiously optimistic.”

Once the site proves to be economical for a diamond-mining operation, “we need to start development studies,” he said.

“And until we get the outcome of the development study, you really don’t know. It’s too early to tell.”

Peregrine Diamonds’ Chidliak Property is 120 kilometres from Iqaluit, and reachable overland via a 170-kilometre winter road that the diamond exploration company used in 2013. Peregrine plans to use the same route this winter, to collect bulk samples. (IMAGE COURTESY OF PERGRINE DIAMONDS LTD.)