Kimberlites were also discovered in the Fort à la Corne area in 1989, which is approximately 50 km north of Melfot. A total of 70 drill-tested kimberlite bodies were identified, and this makes the Fort à la Corne one of the largest in the world. The prefeasibility study from a diamond exploration company indicated that the projected diamond production is to be about 20 million carats over a 12 year’s period.

Silica sand has been quarried in Saskatchewan since the 1930s. The best known deposit of silica sand is located along the Red Deer River northeast of the town of Hudson Bay. These sands contain up to about 98.5 per cent silica (SiO2). About 10 to 14 million tonnes of resources have been identified in the Mannville Group (Cretaceous). The Red Deer River deposits are being developed using on-site screening and washing facilities for the production of white sand for the golf course bunker market.

Beneficiation tests conducted on Cretaceous and Ordovician Winnipeg Formation sands demonstrate that the sands can be effectively upgraded by attrition scrubbing, magnetic separation, acid leaching and calcination. The resulting product is similar, or better than, the Quintus grade of Unimin Corporation. The impurities represent less than 0.01 per cent of the product. Kaolinized sands of the Cretaceous Whitemud Formation in southern Saskatchewan contain about 50 per cent fine sand and have potential as a useful by-product of future kaolin mining. Other market opportunities are being investigated including glass, foundry, filtration and frac sand for the oil industry.source