Read without ads and support Scribd by becoming a Scribd Premium Reader.
See Premium Plans
 
31
Rough Diamond Review 
 
SEPTEMBER 2004
First diamonds inBotswana
FEATURE
First diamonds inBotswana
It is only along the eastern sector of Botswana whereone nds rocky outcrops and some developmentof streams and rivers. Three small diamonds wererecovered from gravels in the Motloutse River,near Foley Siding, in 1959. These were the rstauthenticated diamonds to be found in Botswana,discovered by the Central African Selection Trust(CAST). The prospecting team followed the seasonalriver to its headwaters, but eventually abandonedtheir search under the belief that the diamonds werederived from local Karoo age conglomerates. Theproject was terminated.De Beers had begun prospecting in Botswanain 1955. One of their rst recruits was Dr Gavin Lamontwho had been working at the Geological Survey of Bechuanaland Protectorate (Botswana today). After traversing large areas of the country and sampling theblanket of sand for minute indicator minerals, Lamontnally decided to focus on the eastern central part of Botswana. In 1963 he was joined in his search for kimberlites by Jim Gibson, a young Scot. After eightyears of prospecting De Beers had still not found asingle kimberlite.In 1964 Lamont decided to return to the siteof the original discoveries by
CAST
. By now their data was an open le which he could study andevaluate. Lamont discussed the results with ChrisJennings, a young South African geologist workingat the Geological Survey on the geohydrology of thecountry. Jennings directed Lamont to a paper writtenby Dr Alex du Toit, the South African geologist creditedwith the theory of continental drift and Gondwanaland.Of interest was Du Toit’s identication of a warp inthe crust of the Earth that stretched from Bulawayoin Zimbabwe to the southern parts of Botswana.Lamont noticed that the headwaters of the MotloutseRiver terminated against the crustal upwarp identiedby Du Toit. It was possible that the Motloutse River could have been spliced in two by the upwarp andthat both the Motloutse River and the diamonds itcontained could have an origin further to the west, onthe other side of the upwarp. Lamont sent a report tothe De Beers head ofce, but received no reply.Two years later Botswana was approachingits independence. Still unsuccessful, De Beers wereready to terminate their exploration in Botswana.
“In the romantic hunt for diamonds, for the rich pot-holes and jewel- patches in which they sometimes collect, many men have been inclined to lose sight of the strangestorehouses from whichthey have come. That isto say, most men have.On the other hand, somehave not.” - Hedley Chilvers, TheSeven Lost Trails of  Africa, 1930.
Dr LEONDANIELS
More than two thirds of Botswana is covered by the KalahariDesert. This almost ubiquitous blanket of sand has longobscured Botswana’s mineral wealth. The country’s rstkimberlite pipe was only discovered in 1967 after more thana decade of prospecting.
The Orapa discovery pit: Jim Gibson, Dr Gavin Lamont and Manfred Marx 
 
32
Rough Diamond Review 
 
SEPTEMBER 2004
However, Lamont wanted to test his interpretation of Du Toit’s warp theory once and for all. There had beena change at head ofce and the new man in chargeof exploration, Louis Murray, granted a three monthextension to the exploration programme - more out of respect for Lamont’s tenacity than out of optimism. 
Indicators
: In only three months Lamont and Gibsonhad to cover an area of approximately 4600 squarekilometres. Traditional methods of sampling alongtraverse lines could not be followed as it would betoo slow. The two geologists set off in two vehiclesfollowing every track made by hunters and cattlefarmers throughout the vast area, and collecting soilsamples at regular intervals. They returned thesamples to the camp for washing and screening. Bythe time they found what had been eluding them for solong, the tiny ilmenites and garnets that lead the wayto kimberlites, the search had to be postponed whileother projects were nished off. They still had noproof that they had found diamonds,but they knew they were on the tracksof a kimberlite. During this waitingperiod their team was expanded by arecent graduate geologist from CapeTown, Manfred Marx.When they resumedexploration in the area resultsfollowed rapidly. Firstly a vehectare kimberlite designated 2125B/K1 was discovered, rapidly followedby 2125B/K2. Both these kimberliteswere characterised by positivetopography. In April 1967 Marxcontacted Lamont by radio to reportthat fantastic indicator counts werebeing obtained in a particular area.They studied aerial photographsof the area and found a very largevegetation anomaly. This turnedout to be a feature regularly usedby pilots as a navigation point whenthey ew over that part of Botswana.The surface area was too large for Lamont to consider it a single pipeand he thought it might be an alluvialfeature of some sort. Nevertheless,he instructed Marx to dig a pit and setoff with Jim Gibson to join Marx inthe eld. In the afternoon of 19 April1967 Manfred Marx climbed out of the pit late with therst piece of kimberlite from the world famous 113 ha2125A/K1 kimberlite – Orapa.The Orapa kimberlite was named after anearby cattle post and the mine was ofcially openedin 1971 at a development cost of ZAR 21 million. It hasan age of 93 Ma and is situated within the ZimbabweCraton. The majority of the diamonds are eclogitic inorigin.By the end of 1972 a total of 30 kimberlitediscoveries had been made in the Orapa eld,including the Letlhakane 2125D/K1 and K2 pipes.The latter two pipes were brought into productionas the Lethlhakane Mine in 1977. The DK1 pipe ischaracterised by an elevated topography in the formof a calcrete hill adjacent to the Lethlakane River.Ironically, Alex du Toit had already recorded this hillduring a mapping exercise in the 1930s. The lastkimberlite to be discovered in the Orapa eld duringthis initial phase of exploration, 2125B/K16, was alsothe rst kimberlite to be discovered in Botswana withthe use of airborne magnetic surveys.The discovery of the Orapa eld changed theDe Beers’ view of Botswana’s exploration potential andtheir activity increased signicantly. Lamont was givena budget to hunt for kimberlites in elephant territory.Just as the rst phase of exploration decreased in theOrapa area, activities increased elsewhere leadingto the discovery of the Jwaneng kimberlite eld,approximately 150 km west of the capital, Gaborone.The main exploration method was systematic soilsampling of surface Kalahari sediments.
Magnetics
: The rst kimberlite 2424D/K1 wasdrilled in 1972. This was followed by the discoveryof 2424D/K2 in 1973. The latter kimberlite wasapproximately 40 – 45 metres beneath Kalahariformation sediments and consisted of the coalescenceof three diatremes in a single crater with a surface areaof 54 ha. The kimberlite had a very poor magneticexpression, but was characterised by a distinct gravity‘low’. This 235 Ma old kimberlite became known asthe Jwaneng Mine which was described by HarryOppenheimer at the ofcial opening of the mine in1982 as ‘the most important discovery of the century‘.
BOTSWANA
 An aerial photograph (1960) showing the vegetation anomaly associated with the Orapa pipe. Other smaller kimberlite pipes can also be seen in thearea to the east and south-east of Orapa.
1 KILOMETER
 
33
Rough Diamond Review 
 
SEPTEMBER 2004
A total of 11 kimberlites were discovered in this eldalthough 2125D/K7, a 5 ha bilobate diatreme, was theonly other discovery of economic interest.While working at the Geological Survey,Chris Jennings developed a model to search for kimberlites using aeromagnetics. EventuallyFalconbridge, the Canadian nickel company, decidedto support his ideas. They began investigatingareas to the east of Orapa, but without success. In1976 an international journal published apaper detailing those areas in Botswanacharacterised by kimberlite indicators in thesoils, as reported by De Beers explorationactivities. Falconbridge immediately appliedfor prospecting licences in two of the areaswhere no kimberlites had been discovered.These were granted in 1977 andFalconbridge used the airborne technology.Their results were exciting. Both in theTshabong area, in the south western partof the country, and in the Kukong areafurther to the north, they identied severalaeromagnetic targets to investigate.In the Tshabong area the maintarget was identied as M1 being the rstanomaly identied in the Molop projectarea. Ground crews were sent to locate thetarget on the ground, which was enormous,in excess of two square kilometres. Anold jumper drill was despatched andkimberlitic sediments were discovered ata depth of 80 metres. After two years of delineation drilling the largest recognised kimberlite inthe world, the 77 Ma old, 200 hectare M1 kimberlitewas earmarked for bulk sampling. In addition to theM1 pipe, Falconbridge under the guidance of ChrisJennings discovered another 39 kimberlites in thearea including the trilobate T6 kimberlite of 54 ha,which is similar in size to the Jwaneng kimberlite.An interesting feature noticed in this kimberlite eldwas that while the majority of the kimberlites wererepresented by magnetic ‘high’ signatures, some(e.g. T45) were characterised by magnetic ‘lows’.In the Kukong area Falconbridge discovered21 kimberlites. The most interesting was theKN 70 kimberlite with a possible grade of 10 cpht.Although most of the kimberlites had some crater facies associated with them, only hypabyssal facieskimberlite was interesected at the KE1 kimberlite.This kimberlite was also the only kimberlite associatedwith a gravity ‘high’. In this area, Falconbridge alsodiscovered a number of carbonititic intrusives, thelargest being KW2 with a diameter of 4 kilometres.Meanwhile, De Beers was investigatingthe area between Tshabong and Kukong. Theydiscovered a cluster of non-diamondiferous kimberlitesor lamproites at Mabua Sehube.
Reinforcements
: Following their successfuldiscoveries of kimberlite in both the Tshabong andKukong areas, Falconbridge and their joint venturepartner Superior Oil decided on a large regionalsoil sampling programme over the central part of Botswana. However, before embarking on thisexercise they wanted a system to rate kimberliteindicators for diamond potential. John Gurney, fromthe University of Cape Town in South Africa, hadpublished a paper in 1973 relating diamond inclusiongarnets to concentrate garnets in the host kimberlite.Chris Jennings turned to John Gurney to develop asystem of indicator assessment for Falconbridge.John Lee, from Falconbridge, provided themineral chemistry data on the kimberlite indicatorscollected during their exploration programmes andorientation surveys. In addition, Gurney sent a younggeology student from the University of Cape Town,Leon Daniels, to sample kimberlites in the Kimberleyand Karoo area of South Africa. The Karoo kimberlites
 An evaluation camp is established next to the 110 hectare Orapa pipe, which can be seen in outline behind the camp. (1968)
BOTSWANA
Search
Search History:
Searching...
Result 00 of 00
00 results for result for
  • p.
    • Notes
    Load more