DIAMOND STUDY DMS test plant readied for Renard

QUEBEC Equal partners ASHTON MINING of Vancouver and SOQUEM of Quebec City are building a small-scale diamond recovery plant at their Foxtrot property in the north-central part of the province. Site preparation is underway for a 10-tonnes/hour dense media separation (DMS) plant to treat material from the Renard cluster of kimberlites. It should be operational in October 2006.

The test plant will initially treat material obtained by surface trenching from Renard 4. Then an underground bulk sample from Renard 2 and 3 will be processed. Underground development of a 475-metre decline and 400 metres of drifting is planned. A total of 10,000 tonnes will be treated.

Ashton expects the sample to average 101 ct/hundred tonnes (cpht). Further information is available at www.Aston.ca.