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True North Gems returns to Kimmirut

Smaller operation continues the hunt for sapphires

SARA MINOGUE

True North Gems is planning a return this summer to the site of its beluga sapphire find north of Kimmirut.

Last summer, the company spent just over $1 million extracting 125 tonnes of rock to test for minerals. That proved valuable, as the company was able to confirm the presence of rare blue sapphire gems.

They also discovered another gemstone on the site — cobalt blue spinel. Spinel is a gemstone that comes in many colors, and is often found along with sapphires or rubies, and looks similar to these stones. Cobalt blue spinel is a particularly rare shade of spinel.

The details have yet to be worked out for this year’s work, but president Greg Fekete said the company, led by its new vice-president of operations and site manager for Kimmirut, Greg Davison, would be on site to extract more rock samples for “trenching, mapping, what I call traditional exploration work.”

“We’ll have local prospectors again from Kimmirut and we’ll be employing local people again from Kimmirut to manage stone movement and rock extraction,” Fekete said.

True North gems has several exploration sites on the tundra north of Kimmirut. The goal for this summer’s work is to make sure they have the best location before attempting to extract the gems already found.

To do that, they don’t plan on taking our more than 10 or 14 tonnes of rock, Fekete said.

“We just don’t need that much again.”

Local prospectors will be hired to help with the process.

“We had some success last year in training people further along so a couple prospectors are now very, very adept people. We’ll continue to use them and, because we will have a crew there, we’ll be probably renting a local house and having local cooks and all that kind of thing.

“We’re quite excited by the potential of the area, not just for sapphires, but for other gemstones,” Fekete said. “The mineralogy of the area is excellent. There’s a host of minerals there and some of the local prospectors have been collecting less valuable gemstones in the last little while.”

The work will likely start in mid-June and run to mid-September.

Though the final budget for the work is not yet approved, “our permitting has all been filed and is well underway,” Fekete said.

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