Diamond Pipe

Many years ago I used to got out to White Cliffs for winter to look for opal, one of the old timers told me about a diamond pipe that De Beers investigated back in the 60's.
We went for a look and sure enough the ground looked burnt as I was told to look out for, we also found garnets, garnets are the associate mineral with diamond.
There are diamonds there but too small a pipe to be commercially viable, heres the coords from google earth.
DONT FORGET GOOGLE EARTH IS NOT REALLY ACCURATE.
Diamond Pipe 30°42'46.10"S 142°37'33.50"E

Also, this is very unforgiving country, you could die if you make a wrong move.

Not associated with that diamond pipe but in the same area my son picked up a yellow diamond out of a creek, we had it evaluated by a gemologist, and yep, its diamond.

Brickie wrote:Many years ago I used to got out to White Cliffs for winter to look for opal, one of the old timers told me about a diamond pipe that De Beers investigated back in the 60's.
We went for a look and sure enough the ground looked burnt as I was told to look out for, we also found garnets, garnets are the associate mineral with diamond.
There are diamonds there but too small a pipe to be commercially viable, heres the coords from google earth.
DONT FORGET GOOGLE EARTH IS NOT REALLY ACCURATE.
Diamond Pipe 30°42'46.10"S 142°37'33.50"E

Also, this is very unforgiving country, you could die if you make a wrong move.

Not associated with that diamond pipe but in the same area my son picked up a yellow diamond out of a creek, we had it evaluated by a gemologist, and yep, its diamond.

Just checked out this area on my Hema maps...wow Unforgiving country certainly describes it to a 'T'!

Here is a little more info on the area and the diamonds.

http://bonzle.com/c/a?a=p&p=314885&ss=1400&c=1&x=142.6292&y=-30.7153&w=40000&mpsec=0

There is also gold near by, the area has been worked but not overly.

Gold mine 30°46'22.54"S 142°41'9.13"E

http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=k48251705g75563n&size=largest

Brickie wrote:http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=k48251705g75563n&size=largest

Thanks for the info Brickie, looks pretty interesting. Not too sure if I'll ever get a chance to head out there but I'll put the info to one side, just incase.

hello Brickie ..

I am new to this site ..been fascinated with diamond pipes for so long..NSW ,has an unusual occurance of diamonds ,,it dont follow kimbilite pipe model or lamporite . every one out there is zeroing in on Gold ..But i believe in NSW .its untapped, in terms of where to find them here . there is a fortune out there waiting to be discovered , I believe the southern highlands on the south coast and Blue mountains and scone area -Barrington tops,is highly likely to have pipes ,that have bought diamonds to the surface ..The trick is tracing the pipes ..thats where i need help ? ..identifying a true pipe .regardless ,if its a breccia or a basic or ultra basic or kimbilite ..a pipe is a pipe ..and this is a carrier from the depths of the earth .. Looking for buddies for contact in the quest of finding diamonds In NSW . I am not rich or anything ,,just plenty time on me hands to locate pipes ..be nice if there are some like minded people out there ?..I am from the wollongong area ..cheers all .., he who seeks ,shall surely find ! The Rock Hound ..

Id be looking in the gravels of creeks to start with, let the creek do all the work and then back track from there, get 3mm and 6mm stackable sieve and go through the gravels, diamonds being relatively heavy 3.5ish SG they should be in places you would expect to find gold in a creek.

Im sure there are lots of unfound places just waiting to be stumbled on.
There are diamonds at Beechworth in Vic, a 12 carat yellow was found there some years ago, the old gold miners used to just throw them back.

Also on average for every 80 kimberlite pipes there is only one that is usually diamond bearing for some reason.

[
Thanx for yesterdays update in relation to going through the gravels and back tracking from there .
Again ,,area's known to have pipes and the indicators being garnet and olivene ,would get my attention in that type of fossicking that you suggest ..
I have heard of Beechworth and numerous gems found there .. there could be a possible pipe inclusion there ,,has anyone found it ? I doubt it ..kimbilite pipes are very rare and to my knowledge, none have been found here in Australia...only indicators of some up around the Scone-Barrington tops area ..And another place that is highly geological area is in Dubbo (nsw) right through to MT- Isa in (queensland )all of that area is supposely under geological scrunity at the moment by mining and geo technical and geologists for mineral exploration ......

Let me know if you ever plan to go to white cliffs again ..love to try the whole area out or any other area like that with a supposed pipe inclusions ..wouldnt it be nice to have a geologist buddy with you in locating them ..like they did up at Arglye in the 70's ..The diamonds that were found In NSW, have still bedazzled scientist to this day as to the source and where they came from .. there starting to suspect they were pipes of non kimbilite origins and this what any future prospecter needs to consider when targetting diamonds .the patterns of diamond finds in( NSW) does not conform to kimbilite...thats why i suspect De beers checked out that place at white cliffs..what an interesting place to check out for prospecting .. Love to go with some one who knows the area ..................

cheers, once again brickie and fellow prospectors - keep scratching the surface of our hobby - The Rockhound !








quote="Brickie"]Id be looking in the gravels of creeks to start with, let the creek do all the work and then back track from there, get 3mm and 6mm stackable sieve and go through the gravels, diamonds being relatively heavy 3.5ish SG they should be in places you would expect to find gold in a creek.

Im sure there are lots of unfound places just waiting to be stumbled on.
There are diamonds at Beechworth in Vic, a 12 carat yellow was found there some years ago, the old gold miners used to just throw them back. [/quote]

I did read that they mined a bucket of diamonds at Arglye every week that was worth $1 million .

I am mindful of Arglye diamond mine .any diamond prospector knows about that ,,in this context ,,its about white cliffs ..ok mate ,,thanx for your input on Arglye ..

But in relation to White cliffs what do you know about that ?

Let the western Australian diamond mines prosper ,, i am looking for undiscovered realms of NSW and Victoria ..get it mate ? stuff Arglye ,,,they wont let us lone prospectors in there way ..
thats why i suggest ,there are many other pipes ,waiting to be discovered ! ..so in relation to white cliffs ,,be topical before you write any more suggestions ,,
be in the context of the topic .started by Brickie ..by now ,, God bless all and happy fossicking from Rock hound ..cheers ..

Hey Minermike thats a lot of Argyle diamond

Hey Rockhound thats where you should be heading if you want shiploads

Cheers Bruce

Hey Minermike thats a lot of Argyle diamond

Hey Rockhound thats where you should be heading if you want shiploads

Cheers Bruce

A couple more close by

http://www.4shared.com/file/2xc7c9vc/Kayrunnera_Diatreme.html

Anomaly P2 Diatreme,
-30.705690, 142.602690,
diamond - gem//none/CRA Exploration (1989) drill testing of aeromag anomaly P2 intersected nephelinitic diatreme. 60 kilos of RAB cutiings from one hole contained 2 macrodiamonds,

Kayrunnera Diatreme,
-30.714450, 142.625640,
diamond - gem?//nil/Alkali basaltic affinity? diatreme. Sampling/drilling failed to produce distinct kimberlite indicators

The diamonds near my place..Black Springs NSW are perfect crystals that are totally fresh and untravelled. They come from Tertiary basalts (lavas) that eminated from a dozen or so centres nearby. The diamonds were dragged up with pieces of mantle rock trapped in the basalt. The occcurrence of diamonds in the local basalts that came up from only 12-20 kms below the surface proved that diamonds can form at shallower depths rather then the widely excepted deep origin theory. They are mostly very small but at least one big yellow perfect crystal that was flawless and over 20 carats has been found. A copy of it cut in yellow topaz is in the Australian (Sydney) Museum mineral display.

The area also produces some nice olivine crystals from vughes in the basalts (sledge hammer needed) and really big zircons that can be clear through yellow to blood red. Zircons and diamonds are the only gems that double refract light when they are cut and really sparkle. Its a pity that someone developed a synthetic gem and marketing idiots named them cubic zirconia.. because it really meant that genuine beautiful zircons became a low value gem in the minds of a non gem savvy public.
Tributer

Tributer wrote: Its a pity that someone developed a synthetic gem and marketing idiots named them cubic zirconia.. because it really meant that genuine beautiful zircons became a low value gem in the minds of a non gem savvy public.
Tributer

Your not wrong Tributer, those blood red zircons are a thing of beauty!

Didn't know they are found out your way, we got them around the Rocky River/Uralla area.

Hey Tributer ,

can you give me a run down on where Black springs is and the creeks, etc? sounds like an interesting place to have a look
for some gems , Diamonds or olivine or zircon ..all sounds cool . Is that in The Blue mountains? - yowies and all, lol.

I am from Wollongong area . if you would be kind enough to show us around some time up there ,
be most appreciated ..preferably ,when the Joe blakes and poisonous snakes are not out in force .lol.

Any other Diamond Info and related Gems and potential localities ,be much welcome .

cheers from The Rock hound in the Gong .. :

During the most productive years the Argyle Diamond Mine produced 7-8 tonnes of pure diamond a year or around 20kgs or 100,000 carats a day. Bit more than a bucket a week!!

I was the Manager Process and Recovery at the time and worked for Argyle for 17 years having been head-hunted from southern Africa (de Beers) in late 1980

John

Hi folks, Sweet! bushed Tracker! maybe you can just lead us too the diamonds!! what percentage of production would be gem quality diamond ? interesting topic,If only it was that easy eh?

Regards
Wayne.

Yup Wayne................ but if it was easy everyone would be doing it..... me included For every one hundred kimberlitic or lamporitic Pipes discovered, less than 5 will be diamondiferous and only one in a hundred of those will be of commercial value.

Even on a good orebody finding the stuff is not easy I think Argyles ccurrent grade is probably less than 3 carats/tonne. To put that in perspective that is 3 parts per million. Then consider that that the stone you find will be unlikely be really good stone quality wise and then size - well thats a bit like gold, there is heaps more of the small stuff than good bits.

Having said all that, finds are possible. There are many small dykes or small alluvial deposits scattered around the country but you will need the skills and equipment to be able to find them. Once you have found the mother lode - give me a call. I have a mate in Perth who is one of the leading Diamond Geologists in the world who was instrumental in finding the de beers Orapa orebody in Botswana (after looking for it for 20 years) and I will happily consult on the processing side

Argyle has generally poor quality stones, originally some 5 % were gem quality. Lots more were brown coloured and considered idustrial or Boart by de Beers who were buying our production at the time. Later we stopped selling to them when the first contract completed. We considered that there was a great opportunity to be made marketing these 'brown' stone properly. To this end some of the best designers and cutters were put together to creat a collection of these stones, now branded as Champagne and Congnac and marketed worldwide. This shifted the so called gem quality from around 5% to 30 - 35%. Pretty smart. The larger congnac stones, surrounded by smaller brilliant whites an set in yellow gold look absolutely superb. The contrasting colours work brilliantly together.

Then there is the very rare Argyle Pink's worth an absolute fortune if the quality/colour is the best. Some 20 years ago, the benchmark price was US$5 million/carat for the best stones.

I always keep an eye on the ground when out chasing a nugget or two but the prospects are about equivalent of finding some rocking horse poo.

Have fun

John

i hunt for Diamonds on the west coast of Tasmania. We don't have a known kimberlite or Lamproite pipe or anything like it, so its a bit mysterious how they got here. Although we do get some Breccia close by, so perhaps that is a clue. Tiny little things. Argyle run the screened material on conveyors under Low Spectrum UV lights and use triggered pneumatics to blow the Diamonds off the belt. I use grease, like de beers. I would never of thought of white cliffs as having Diamonds or a pipe! either..

edit* sorry Bushed-Tracker, i didnt read about your huge experience in the Diamond industry first. Awesome.

HI Philski,

Sorry mate but your decription of the recovery process at Argle is not quite right. Basically the run of mine ore is scrushed and screened to -20mm then processed in HMS (Heavy Medai Separation) using cyclones and a dense media to produce a concentrate of heavy minerals. HMS tailings are re-screened and the +12mm fractions are returned for further crushing and screening - this prevents crushing large diamonds.

The HMS concentrates go to the recovery plant where they are dried and screened into size fractions. The sized concentrates are fed into X-Ray machines. Diamonds flouresce under x-ray exitation and this is used as the primary property for separating the diamond from waste.

In its most simple form the diamondiferous ore is passed through an x-ray beam. The diamonds flouresce and this is 'seen' by a photo-electric cell and the resultant signal is passed to an compressed air ejector that fires and deflects the diamond (and maybe the adjacent non-diamond particle out of the ore stream into a separate container. Sounds simple but in practice they are very complex machines capable of treating up to 5 tonne/hr of -4+2 mm sized material. They are a total re-engineering using the basic principles of x-ray separation We originally considered using the de Beers machines but they had very limited capacity +/- 300 kg/hr. As the Argyle grades are massively higher than those found in Africa.

The final diamond concentrates are hand sorted for any remaining waste and the diamonds acidised to remove any final imputities.

Grease works well, it relies on the fact that clean diamonds are un-wetable, and will therefore stick to grease whereas other minerals are wetable and will roll off the grease. So, if you are using grease you have to make sure the diamonds are clean. Mill the concentrate in a concrete mixer with a suitable medium, small steel balls or graded pebbles and then wash thoroughly.

Grease tables or belts work better with vibration (not to strong) and 'steps' or 'drops' to increase penetration into the grease and minumum water flow. Jigging is also an effective way of producing a concentrate.

Hope this helps

John

Hi Bushed-Tracker, thanks for the input to this thread. I was never trying to post something away from the original thread, as suggested by the original poster. A lot of people do not know what the Argyle mine produces. I still work for ALS Ammtec in Sydney and read from time to time what the mines are producing.

watch out for blue clay kimberlite breaks down into it and blue clay is common spot for diamonds

Rockhound, read the book, Stone Of Destiny by Ion Idriess, he later updated it and called it The Diamond. I have seen the book but not read it, I did notice a map of all the areas where diamonds have been found in NSW. You might be able to get it out of the library or buy on E-Bay. Years ago I had a loan of his book, Cyaniding For Gold from the library of Wollongong. At that time you could buy a s/h copy for $100 now you have to pay $3,500.... You can buy a re-print for about $300.

Hi Rockhound,
Forget about the pipe around White Cliffs. The bloke who owns the property WILL NOT let anybody on for anything fullstop. Just trying to save you wasted time, money and effort. Baggy

DED_GRAIN_ANALYSES_Diamond_2012

Diamond Finds and the Color and Details

Google Earth Overlays

DED_GRAIN_ANALYSES_Diamond_2012.KML
David

Diamonds By the Kgrams


Location in Google E Overlays


Diamonds By Kgrams.kml

David

i think his diamond pipe, was a blow.