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Gold/Mining/Energy : Winspear Resources -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: dgz who wrote (21978)	6/25/1999 10:26:00 PM
From: Mike Hermann	Respond to of 26850

Some Stuff from BC Geological Survey : DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENT / GEOLOGICAL SETTING: The kimberlites rise quickly from the mantle and are emplaced as multi-stage, high-level diatremes, tuff-cones and rings, hypabyssal dikes and sills. AGE OF MINERALIZATION: Any age except Archean for host intrusions. Economic deposits occur in kimberlites from Proterozoic to Tertiary in age. The diamonds vary from early Archean to as young as 990 Ma. HOST/ASSOCIATED ROCK TYPES: The kimberlite host rocks are small hypabyssal intrusions which grade upwards into diatreme breccias near surface and pyroclastic rocks in the crater facies at surface. Kimberlites are volatile-rich, potassic ultrabasic rocks that commonly exhibit a distinctive inequigranular texture resulting from the presence of macrocrysts (and sometimes megacrysts and xenoliths) set in a fine grained matrix. The megacryst and macrocryst assemblage in kimberlites includes anhedral crystals of olivine, magnesian ilmenite, pyrope garnet, phlogopite, Ti-poor chromite, diopside and enstatite. Some of these phases may be xenocrystic in origin. Matrix minerals include microphenocrysts of olivine and one or more of: monticellite, perovskite, spinel, phlogopite, apatite, and primary carbonate and serpentine. Kimberlites crosscut all types of rocks. DEPOSIT FORM: Kimberlites commonly occur in steep-sided, downward tapering, cone-shaped diatremes which may have complex root zones with multiple dikes and "blows". Diatreme contacts are sharp. Surface exposures of diamond-bearing pipes range from less than 2 up to 146 hectares (Mwadui). In some diatremes the associated crater and tuff ring may be preserved. Kimberlite craters and tuff cones may also form without associated diatremes (e.g. Saskatchewan); the bedded units can be shallowly-dipping. Hypabyssal kimberlites commonly form dikes and sills. TEXTURE/STRUCTURE: Diamonds occur as discrete grains of xenocrystic origin and tend to be randomly distributed within kimberlite diatremes. In complex root zones and multiphase intrusions, each phase is characterized by unique diamond content (e.g. Wesselton, South Africa). Some crater-facies kimberlites are enriched in diamonds relative to their associated diatreme (e.g. Mwadui, Tanzania) due to winnowing of fines. Kimberlite dikes may display a dominant linear trend which is parallel to joints, dikes or other structures. ORE CONTROLS: Kimberlites typically occur in fields comprising up to 100 individual intrusions which often group in clusters. Each field can exhibit considerable diversity with respect to the petrology, mineralogy, mantle xenolith and diamond content of individual kimberlites. Economically diamondiferous and barren kimberlites can occur in close proximity. Controls on the differences in diamond content between kimberlites are not completely understood. They may be due to: depths of origin of the kimberlite magmas (above or below the diamond stability field); differences in the diamond content of the mantle sampled by the kimberlitic magma; degree of resorption of diamonds during transport; flow differentiation, batch mixing or, some combination of these factors.