Early-stage diamond explorer Sunrise Resources (SRES) has released results of preliminary surface grab sampling at its Cue 1 diamond project in Western Australia.
Grab sampling - a highly selective process by nature, in which geologists generally only pick up good samples and companies rarely report anything that is not of interest - unsurprisingly showed the Cue 1 kimberlite outcrop to contain a high number of microdiamonds, but no macrodiamonds. We say unsurprisingly because De Beers, the previous owner of the property which abandoned its claims after exploring them for nearly eight years, must have found enough small diamonds there to warrant the said exploration.
Sunrise further noted that "mineral chemistry supports commercial potential" at Cue, which seems a bit premature given that the average timeline to production for such an early-stage project is around 10 to 12 years.
