COLORADO DIAMOND PROSPECTING, Colorado has diamond deposits, you just need to look... Options

[ASTROBLEME]

Hi Everyone:

Diamond prospecting isn't too hard if you know what to look for. This photo was recently posted publicly by another diamond expert (Dan Hausel) whom I've worked with and have grown to respect over the past few years. I am excited to now be able to share some knowledge through this forum as I have endured much difficulty in the early years while learning about diamond prospecting on my own.

The specimens in this photo are great examples of "indicator minerals" that were recovered from a diamond bearing area (Sloan Ranch kimberlite pipes #1 & #2) right here in Colorado. If you ever find minerals that resemble these specimens in any of your samples, I'd advise you to consider testing the prospect area for DIAMONDS!

Sincerely,

ASTROBLEME

[ASTROBLEME]

Diamond Digger posted this in the Off Topic forum under "Halo All Prospectors" topic. I found it very interesting since one of my first sampling efforts recovered a stone much like he was describing...

Hi,
Your questions are interesting. But you should never worry too much about how it got to the surface just that it is there!
I am not a Geologist but I held many pieces of Kimberlite in my hands and I sure know what to look for and how to spot it.
Garnets is the first indicator you want to see small dark purple ones. Then Feldspar, ilminite etc they are good indicators but a tip I can give you is to look for the pointer stone.... (Spits in the corner ) It is a dirty white stone small usually around 5-10 mil big looks like two separate stones joined by a dirty brown band... in any direction, hence dirty stone. The lore is you will always find a diamond right next to one of them. At first I thought it a joke so the old man took me into the field with a test sieve and we spend the day looking for dead gravel. This is gravel that does not bear diamonds. We did find some and it looked OK from afar but close up the indicators were gone. On the way back we did a quick hand wash of some promising samples and found a small .3ct diamond next to you guessed it.... a dirty stone!
Have fun.
DD


Here is a photo of the brown and white banded stone I recovered on my very first sampling effort for diamonds several years ago. After reading DD's post, I remembered the odd brown and white rock so I went back into my old samples and put together this picture to share...



The stone under the tweezers is the sharp edged fragment that was contained in the lake sediments that formed inside the granite walls surrounding my first kimberlite pipe discovery at the Stateline Mining District. I imagine that a similar sample that had eroded out of a pipe, after tumbling in a stream for some distance, it would look like the white and brown banded stone DD talks about. If you come across a sample like this in the Stateline Mining District, it is a "very good indicator" in my opinion.

DD, do you have any photos of the pointer stones?

Johnny