Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. announced the discovery of additional kimberlite, approximately 40 metres to the northeast of the modeled Tuzo kimberlite. In addition, the drilling of the Hearne Deep and the Northwest Extension has seen multiple intercepts of up to 287 metres of kimberlite. The Hearne Northwest Extension was identified in late 2021 when a kimberlite exposure (25 meters across) was encountered in a lower bench face during routine mining operations.

Drilling programs in 2022 indicated that a significant volume of previously unknown kimberlite could exist, with ten of sixteen drillholes reported kimberlite intersections up to 114 meters in the extension. In the 2023 program ten of eleven drillholes collared within and outside of the Hearne pit have intersected kimberlite with the longest intersection being 287 meters. Drillholes within the pit are shown as red circles.

Insets show the shape of Hearne prior to discovery of the extension. The internal geology of Hearne is shown with blue indicating hypabyssal kimberlite (HK/HKt) and yellow and green indicating fragmental kimberlite (TK/TKt). The modeled outer contacts and internal geology for the Northwest Extension are speculative at this time and will be adjusted as the results of detailed logging and analysis are received.

Following on the discovery and delineation of the Hearne Northwest Extension, drilling to look for a similar extension has been started at Tuzo. Limited historical drilling at Tuzo has confirmed kimberlite to a vertical depth of over 700 meters. Based on the northeast-directed downward ramping of the 5034 kimberlite and its proximity to Tuzo, a single drillhole was collared east of Tuzo to test for a northeast extension.

The image below shows the relationship of drillhole MPV-23-632C to the 5034, Tuzo and Wilson kimberlites. Drillhole MPV-23-632C intersected TKt/HKt kimberlite from 669.77-710.00 meters, and is located roughly 40 meters northeast of the Tuzo kimberlite. The kimberlite phase in Tuzo that is nearest to the intersect is modeled also as TKt (shown in yellow in the image).

Logging and mineral chemistry of the drill core is underway to confirm whether it is similar in detail to Tuzo.