News from Canada NewsWire
Kimberlite discovery in Mauritania
9:30 EST Tuesday, October 5, 1999
Symbol: RXD
Trading: Toronto Stock Exchange
ZOUERAT, Oct. 5 /CNW/ - Dr. Luc Rombouts reports from Mauritania that a kimberlite
pipe has been found in the Tenoumer permit. The kimberlite is a coarse grained tuff breccia.
The kimberlite pipe was found by pitting into a circular aeromagnetic anomaly of about 300
metres diameter. The aeromagnetic anomaly was visible on the preliminary maps of the
airborne magnetic survey that is still underway. The pipe is covered by 1.5 metre of loose
dune sand. The top 0.5 metre of the kimberlite is intensely calcreted; underneath occurs
recognizable kimberlite, containing large pieces of ilmenite, olivine, phlogopite, as well as
ultramafic nodules. The kimberlite will shortly be tested on its diamond content. Similar
interesting magnetic anomalies, occuring upwind of an important pyrope garnet and
chrome-diopside trail will be checked in the coming weeks.
In the Touajil region, the company has found in the past three months many more diamonds
and more angular pyropes during the sampling program of the gravels and surface sands.
Garnets with subkelyphitic and kelyphitic rim (remnant of kimberlite rock), see pictures on
rexmining.com, point to a major kimberlite source about 15 kilometres further
north than initially thought. The area of interest has now been intensely sampled and a
detailed airborne geophysical survey will start on October 6 and will be completed one
week later. Earlier in the year, the company found in the Touajil region the first commercial
sized diamonds (up to 0.07 Ct) in Mauritania.
The regional indicator mineral sampling of the newly obtained Arouedil and Ouassat permits
is in full swing, with about 1000 samples taken per month. Macro-diamonds and kimberlite
indicator minerals have been found in the first batch of samples taken in the Ouassat permit.
The area where macro-diamonds were found has been covered in the past weeks by an
airborne magnetic and radiometric survey. The preliminary magnetic data sets show a
number of well-defined circular dipolar anomalies, similar to the one that led to the
Tenoumer kimberlite discovery.
The company considers the discovery of the Tenoumer kimberlite as a major breakthrough.
An orientation study is underway on the pipe so as to fully understand the geophysical
signature as well as the indicator mineral dispersal pattern. It is expected that in the coming
months many more kimberlite pipes will be found once the fully processed geophysical data
become available. The pattern of diamond occurences and kimberlite indicator mineral trails
points to separate diamond-bearing kimberlite provinces in the Touajil region, the Tenoumer
permit and the Ouassat permit.
The exploration permits of the company in Mauritania cover 100,000 km(2) in total and are
100% owned by REX.
Happy investing,
andras
ps: at the Rex AM one of Canada's top mining analysts with a major brokerage house, was describing in detailed terms the Twin Gold (TWG-T)kimberlite dyke system, and called it a very exciting find. He would not comment on whether he is writing any research reports on it but he was obviously following it with keen interest.
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