Tsumkwe Diamond Project
Location: Ngamiland, Tsumkwe, Namibia
Owner: Mount Burgess Mining NL 90%, Kimberlite Resources (Pty) Ltd 10%
Project Location
The Tsumkwe Diamond Project is located on the north-eastern border of Namibia adjacent to the Kihabe Base Metals Project and the Western Ngamiland Diamond Project in Botswana. The project surrounds the small town of Tsumkwe and covers an area of 6700km2 under 11 Exclusive Prospecting Licences, seven of which are in Joint Venture with Kimberlite Resources (Pty) Ltd.
Exploration to Date
Exploration by the Company to date has involved the collection of 3700 loam samples, which were processed for kimberlitic indicator minerals and drilling over 52,050m of percussion drilling to test potential kimberlite targets and to sample the basal Kalahari contact for indicator minerals. The basal drilling and surface loam samples have generated several distinct surface and subsurface indicator mineral anomalies.
These indicator minerals include 8 macrodiamonds and significant numbers of G9 and G10 kimberlitic garnets, occurring in distinct clusters.
The Company believes that the freshness and sub-rounded state of some of these G9 and G10 garnets is indicative of a short transport distance in the regolith and, thus, these indicator mineral anomalies are in close proximity to as yet undiscovered kimberlitic sources.
Exploration Model
The Company believes that the known kimberlitic indicator anomalies can be constrained to discrete palaeosurface domains defined by a series of subtle extensional half-grabens filled by the Kalahari Sands and bounded by listric extension faults.
It is the interpretation of the Company that these listric faults bounding the sediment-filled grabens represent zones of transcrustal weakness providing conduits for kimberlitic intrusives. As such, the Company’s focus for ongoing exploration is to define the relationship of indicator mineral anomalies to the palaeosurface and to nearby fault domains and grabens, and to back-trace the source of the indicator minerals to kimberlite intrusions.
Initial success of this model has been the discovery of three non-diamondiferous Gura Kimberlites. The Company believes that the presence of macrodiamonds and G10 garnets infers the existence of a local diamondiferous kimberlite source.
Further Exploration
The forward programme to assess the diamond potential of the Tsumkwe Diamond Project revolves around:- Imaging the palaeosurface and basement contours of the extensional half-grabens via magnetics, drill testing and gravity surveys to refine transport directions for kimberlitic indicator mineral anomalies
- Targeted ground magnetic and gravity surveys over the upland sources of kimberlitic indicator mineral anomalies
- Drilling discrete kimberlite type magnetic targets as well as sampling the base of the Kalahari sand cover in order to best assess the distances any recovered indicator minerals have travelled.
