Stornoway to spend $18 million next year

Stornoway Diamond Corp. plans to spend $18 million for diamond exploration in Nunavut next year, for drilling, ground and aerial studies and sampling on the Melville Peninsula near Hall Beach and Igloolik, the Churchill projects in the Kivalliq, as well as the Coronation diamond projects in the Kitikmeot.

The Vancouver-based company has more than 20 million acres of claims in northern Canada, including more than 12 million acres on the Melville peninsula.

Since 2002, Stornoway has made 20 discoveries of diamond-bearing kimberlites.

Last year, the company spent $5 million exploring sites on the Melville Peninsula where 2,350 diamonds were extracted from a single kimberlite deposit. In April, exploration and drilling on promising locations will start up again at this site, and at another site near Rankin Inlet, where $6 million will be spent this year.

The 2004 budget for exploration in the Coronation diamond property in western Nunavut is $2 million.