TRES-OR ANNOUNCES DRILLING IS UNDERWAY AT THE GUIGUES PIPE AND NEW FINDINGS FROM THE DIAMOND INDICATOR MINERAL CHEMISTRY
09-Dec-2019

Vancouver, B.C. – December 09, 2019 - Tres-Or Resources Ltd. (“Tres-Or” or the “Company”) (TSXV: TRS, OTCPK: TRSFF) is drilling the Guigues Kimberlite pipe in southwestern Quebec as a high-priority diamond exploration target. The Guigues Kimberlite has substantial size (5 to 7 hectares), excellent local infrastructure, and most importantly highly encouraging diamond indicator mineral chemistry. It has never yet been tested by modern microdiamond methods.

The highly encouraging indicator mineral chemistry at Guigues is closely similar to De Beers’ Victor Diamond Mine, and differs from the standard model for diamond exploration. The Guigues Kimberlite diamond potential, like that of the Victor Diamond Mine, is based on high-priority potential source of diamonds from mantle eclogite and lherzolite rocks, instead of the standard harzburgite (G10) sources. The potential diamond source for Guigues is marked by recovery of eclogite and lherzolite garnets that have distinctive compositions just like diamond inclusions recently described from Victor by Stachel et al. (2018). The dominance of lherzolite garnets found as inclusions in Victor diamonds (along with a lesser proportion of eclogite garnet inclusions) is unique among diamond mines around the world, and as Thomas Stachel, the University of Alberta researcher who made this discovery points out, may lead to a new model for diamond targets. The Guigues Kimberlite yields numerous lherzolite and eclogite garnets of comparable diamond inclusion composition, as recently confirmed by application of CF Mineral Research Laboratory’s updated classification system by owner and originator Dr. Charles Fipke. Guigues is thus a priority target for this new diamond potential model.

Guigues Project Exploration Program Underway

Tres-Or is drilling its 100% owned Guigues Pipe. The primary purpose of the drill program is to collect core samples for modern microdiamond testing, which has never been done on the property before.

Tres-Or strongly believes the Guigues Pipe merits direct testing for microdiamonds at a modern independent Canadian microdiamond laboratory, given the recovery of numerous lherzolite and eclogite garnets comparable to diamond inclusions from De Beers’ Victor Diamond Mine, and the potential for high-quality diamonds as suggested by production from the Victor Mine within the same geological trend.

Tres-Or plans to drill 5 drill holes, test all parts of the Guigues Kimberlite pipe, and recover core samples suitable for modern microdiamond testing at a Canadian experienced commercial laboratory.

Guigues story

The Guigues Kimberlite was discovered by De Beers in 1983, and was the first kimberlite pipe discovered in eastern Canada. De Beers drilled two holes (working at the time under the name Monopros), and filed the work with the Quebec government sufficient to hold the claims only until 1989, when the claims expired (ironically, the low cost of operating around Guigues may have contributed to De Beers losing the claims too soon!). Guigues lacked G10 garnet chemistry, and was not further pursued by De Beers. Notably, in 1987 De Beers discovered the Victor Kimberlite, along with others in the Attawapiskat region of Ontario. Like Guigues, Victor lacks G10 garnets and was not prioritized by De Beers, which moved their Canadian focus to the NWT after Dr. Charles Fipke’s famous discovery of diamonds there near Lac de Gras in 1992. However, De Beers had completed enough work to keep the Victor claims until the late 1990s, when they went back and refocused on Victor. This refocus better recognized the importance of eclogite as a potential mantle source for diamonds, and utilized more reliable microdiamond testing methods to convince De Beers they had a significant diamond mine at Victor. By this time, however, De Beers had long lost the Guigues claims so refocusing at Guigues was not possible. In fact, Tres-Or Resources had taken control of the claims covering Guigues, and continues to hold them now.

Tres-Or completed RC drill holes to the top of the kimberlite to recover indicator minerals, which included numerous distinctive and high-priority eclogite garnets comparable to inclusions in diamonds from around the world. In addition, Tres-Or identified a single chromite and several chrome diopsides with compositions pointing to the kimberlite being derived from the diamond stability field. The eclogite garnets with diamond inclusion compositions were especially encouraging because eclogite with abundant diamonds is known from mines around the world.

Because of the distinctive eclogite garnets from Guigues with diamond inclusion compositions, Tres-Or made plans to complete five drill holes for core, testing all parts of the Guigues kimberlite for microdiamonds.

Happily, recent research with Victor diamonds has further enhanced the potential for Guigues. Specifically, after the research team at U of A led by Thomas Stachel demonstrated that both eclogite and lherzolite garnets occur as inclusions in Victor diamonds (and no G10s!), Dr. Charles Fipke reclassified Tres-Or’s Guigues indicator mineral chemistry using his updated system, identifying numerous lherzolite garnets with diamond inclusion compositions just like Victor’s diamond inclusions, in addition to the already prioritized diamond inclusion eclogite garnets. The abundance of eclogite and lherzolite indicators associated with diamond makes Guigues a high-priority unconventional diamond target, just like Victor.