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Colorado Prospector - Gem and mineral prospecting and mining forums > Prospecting, Mineral Collecting and Treasure Hunting Forums > Prospectors and Rockhounding Field Work
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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

Click to view attachment
ASTROBLEME
Of course, the best indicator of a diamond mining deposit is to be successful in finding diamonds.

Here is a photo of my first diamond recovery a few years ago. It is hard to explain the excitement...even today...at finding diamond crystals right here in Colorado!

ASTROBLEME

Click to view attachment
russau
thanks for the info and pics!
nm jack
Great pics & great info. Keep it coming. Thanks for sharing.
ASTROBLEME
QUOTE (nm jack @ Nov 23 2008, 08:19 AM) *
Great pics & great info. Keep it coming. Thanks for sharing.


Here's another photo that you might enjoy. The building was a diamond processing plant that worked the kimberlite pipes on the old Sloan Ranch back in the 1980's. The flat areas up to the right of the building are the reclamation efforts that cover some of the kimberlite.

Chuck Fipke later used the plant to process the first cores taken from the ice covered lake that held his fantastic Canadian discoveries…since it was the only diamond processing facility in North America at the time.

Click to view attachment
CP
Very cool diamond find Astrobleme! cool.gif I bet you were a happy prospector that day for sure!

I remember an excellent documentary done about Chuck's Canadian adventures, very good story.
And the ending description about what he did after his success and he sold the mine........he headed right back out to prospect for more. happy088.gif emoticon-misc-004.gif

Thanks for posting, great stuff! Like NM Jack said.....Keep it comin'!

CP
ASTROBLEME
QUOTE (ColoradoProspector @ Nov 25 2008, 07:06 AM) *
Very cool diamond find Astrobleme! cool.gif I bet you were a happy prospector that day for sure!

I remember an excellent documentary done about Chuck's Canadian adventures, very good story.
And the ending description about what he did after his success and he sold the mine........he headed right back out to prospect for more. happy088.gif emoticon-misc-004.gif

Thanks for posting, great stuff! Like NM Jack said.....Keep it comin'!

CP


Dear CP:

I got the urge to prospect for diamonds about two decades before finding that first stone, so I can relate to Chuck and his story. People dismissed his diamond pursuits and some even joked about him early on. He had a tremendous passion for diamond prospecting that gave him the will to continue on in the face of what most folks would consider unbeatable odds. Of course, many of us can really understand why he keeps prospecting...even when he has already had tremendous successes.

Sincerely,

ASTROBLEME
ASTROBLEME
Hello Everyone Prospecting for Diamonds:

Kimberlites that contain diamonds also carry several other minerals. The most well known are the garnets. Many diamond prospectors search for these garnets since they are much more numerous than diamonds. The colors can be very different and the best way to tell if a garnet was from a diamond bearing pipe is to do a detailed analysis on the chemistry.

Why? Because diamonds contain inclusions and some of those inclusions have been identified as being garnets. The garnets that have the chemistry known to be found in diamond bearing kimberlitic pipes are described as G-9 or G-10. I have collected garnets ranging from purple through wine to bright red in coloration from the surface expressions known as pans in the State Line Mining District. The color isn't so much as an indicator of a kimberlitic pipe containing diamonds as the diamonds are. It is my opinion that far too much time and money is being spent around the world looking for "diamond indicators" than there is actually digging up diamonds!

Here's a photo of some of the garnets I have collected from diamond bearing kimberlitic pipes here in Colorado.

Click to view attachment

As you can see, these don't look too impressive but the diamonds that come with them sure are...

Take another look at my first diamond photo. The red coloration of the matrix is the eclogite garnet mineral. The cubo-octahedral crystal developed within that diamond- eclogite xenolith matrix a long time before it was delivered to the surface. Diamond crystals come in many forms and not all of them appear to be diamonds when first collected. Some have suffered damage during deposition and others can take an uncommon crystal form so check your concentrates carefully. Most diamonds break away from the matrix and are found in a "clean" state without any trace of the matrix. This is due to the diamond being so much harder than the matrix. The diamond crystal is the only thing that survives the through the erosion process. If you ever find a diamond with the matrix attached, you are very, very close to the diamond source. Take your time to properly sample the area to determine where the diamonds are eroding from.

Hope this helps in your recognition of possible diamond deposits.

Sincerely,

ASTROBLEME
amethystguy
Heck, I would be happy just to find those indicator minerals you have posted at the top. The color of those garnets is awesome
jim
Very cool stuff. That means that Mr Tonko has come close to his sorce since the stone in the first pic has matrix still stuck to it. It makes since too. Being that diamond is harder than ALL its surroundings it just gets polished. I'd love to hear his story.
nm jack
emoticon-misc-004.gif Astrobleme, what info do you have on NM if any?? I have found some garnet and the telltale blue ground on some of my claims.
ASTROBLEME
QUOTE (nm jack @ Dec 5 2008, 02:23 PM) *
emoticon-misc-004.gif Astrobleme, what info do you have on NM if any?? I have found some garnet and the telltale blue ground on some of my claims.


nm jack:

While I travel through NM occasionally, I have never had the chance to do any prospecting. I'm sorry that I don't have any information on NM diamond deposits.

If you haven't already done it, let me suggest that you zoom in on you claims using the Google Earth tool. A good quality color photo of your claim coverage may help identify the central core of the blue ground where sampling would be the best. Here's a Google Earth image of a cluster of some of my pipes expressing both "yellow ground" and "blue ground" materials.

Click to view attachment

The circular pans (some call them mars or craters) are highly visible from aerial photos. The depressions seasonally fill with water making sampling difficult when the clay is muddy. LOTS of sampling is required to determine if the target pipe has diamonds.

ASTROBLEME
Bennie
This Is the one I was Interested in , there was never a claim over here ever , I liked the name "lady moon lake" it has destinct craters in the lake Floor. This lake is private but the ponds were all locatable , i was going to claim it just cause how it looked on google earth ,Couldnt locate ON so i lost interest these were even over 2 miles from diamonex as their sister company was going to work with me as long as i was 2 miles away from diamonex , I thought of the sites upon visiting poor Targets and lost interest , but the large lake remains a mystery ,

Id say with all the attention in this area someone should make an effort here , even though the lakes private look at it! It Looks Special , WHAT IF , could be , even part of sec 1 is locatable

But Thanks Anyways Dan and Denise whom helped answer many questions about claiming , but thats what happened to the lakes that i was talking about possibly filling on. as shown never seen a claim
Bennie
to clarify my last post about lady moon ;
this is a private lake but could be leased and drilled maybe even mined , this is an unexplored pipe in the red feather lakes region

While telling dan i was going to explore this area i asked if he been there before and he said;

"even though the lake was private Lady Moon this was top of his list of places Given to diamonex to investigate "
personal communication Dan Hausel 2008

this is 1 of Dans Discoveries ...

some of the area is locatable but the lake itself is private but most of the surrounding is NF Land and is locatable almostl all the way up to the large lake which is private

I explored some of this area and didnt find anything keeping my attention and the larger better portion of the anomoly was private, so i left this area

I am not liable for any use or misuse of this place or idea ,this information is for a professional company that wants to drill, this area might be worth poking around ;)
this is a target that needs alot of groundwork but is a free reference and possibly a free diamond mine to be found haha
there may be another hidden intrusion on some of the claimable adjacent NF land or maybe a lease can be arranged on the private lake .
CP
Nice arial of your kimberlite pipes Astrobleme, can sure see a distinct difference in the deposited material. Would definately enjoy finding something like that someday......very cool!
So when out prospecting and you notice a clear "difference" in ground color, rock form, etc......that would be a great place to check out!

Diamonds normally aren't found with any matrix if I remember it right so yep I would agree, musta' been right at the source. excited.gif

Great info Bennie thanks, sorry to hear you lost interest in that area though. Many times private land owners will make lease arrangements to work deposits within their land, just never know until you inquire with them.

Oh fiddlesticks! Now I got a hankerin' to go out diggin'! emoticon-misc-004.gif See what ya'll did!
Great info, and we would love to hear more about the prospecting stories and work that followed for those pipes Astrobleme......with lots more pics of course! biggrin.gif

CP
ASTROBLEME
Great info, and we would love to hear more about the prospecting stories and work that followed for those pipes Astrobleme......with lots more pics of course! biggrin.gif

CP
[/quote]

Dear CP:

Here's a pic of my first pipe discovery. The "soft" kimberlite eroded during many, many milions of years, leaving a crater like basin inside steep walled "hard granite" cliffs. The steep walls now surround a lake that has formed over the clays resulting from the breakdown of the kimberlite. Other researchers have noted that grass prefers to grow over kimberlite pipes but trees avoid it. You can really see the tree line well above the waterline here.

Click to view attachment

I'll give a look through my files and see if I can find a couple more pics you'd enjoy.

Astrobleme
ASTROBLEME
Dear CP:

Here's a photo of the site where the first drill sampling of one of my discoveries was initiated. This lode claim target is named the "Sands of Time" and it is situate within the South Lost Lakes Placer Claim. It was drilled to a depth of 300 feet in the fall of 2007.

Click to view attachment

ASTROBLEME
ASTROBLEME
Dear CP:

This is a recent photo of the surveyed access route that leads into the USFS approved drill site at Lost Lake. As I'm sure you will remember, this is where I had the "CLAIM JUMPER" problem with Bennie Ulibarri.

Click to view attachment

Notice how the United States Forest Service places the drilling equipment access route below high water line. This is an effort to reduce vegetation damage as much as possible.

ASTROBLEME
ASTROBLEME
Dear CP:

This pic is of Diamond Mountain. The rock mountain lies within the State Line Mining District. It was named way, way before anyone knew there were any naturally occuring diamond deposits nearby. I think that possibly this area had some involvement with an old story about a diamond hoax but the details escape me at this moment.

Click to view attachment

ASTROBLEME
ASTROBLEME
Dear CP:

I found another set of recent photos (Sept 2008) that detail what a kimberlite target drill site looks like. These two photos are of one of the lakes that are visible in the aerial photo I posted earlier.

This is the actual staked drilling site...

Click to view attachment

The view below is from the drill site southward that shows the staked access route into the drill site following along the lake shore. Again you will notice that the USFS is trying to mitigate the impact on perennial vegetation by keeping the equipment access route below high water line. Off highway vehicles tear through this muddy area illegally and I have seen my blue ground splattered along roads 1/2 mile away from this site as they leave the area with my blue clay on their tires!

You can see again that the trees standoff from the kimberlite pipe but the grass prefers it. This is a great field indicator for possible sample sites.

Click to view attachment

ASTROBLEME
ASTROBLEME
Dear CP:

Here's another photo I've taken recently. Bennie previously posted his "discovery" pics of my claims a few weeks ago on this forum at

http://www.coloradoprospector.com/forums/i...?showtopic=2338

Click to view attachment

Thank you for closing that thread. I really get upset with people who vandalize claim stakes. In my photo you will see both the drill site stake and the USFS marker that were torn down and thrown into the grass. This happens far too frequently and that is why I warned everyone that the area was already under claim. I hope that something can be learned from all of that.

ASTROBLEME
ASTROBLEME
Dear CP:

I saw this rainbow coming down over the horizon onto my diamond mining claims at Happy Jack recently. All the leprechauns left before I arrived. stirthepot.gif

Click to view attachment

That is about all I have for now but I will try and answer questions as time permits.

Sincerely,

ASTROBLEME
amethystguy
Ha ha good post. thanks for the pics!!! I like the rainbow, it will lead you to gol.....errr....diamonds. I also like the fact that trees tend to not like that type of ground. I had no idea of that. Is that generally the same for all over the world with pipes? Cool keep these post coming. Good read
nm jack
emoticon-misc-004.gif Great pics & info.
ASTROBLEME
QUOTE (amethystguy @ Dec 12 2008, 08:12 PM) *
Ha ha good post. thanks for the pics!!! I like the rainbow, it will lead you to gol.....errr....diamonds. I also like the fact that trees tend to not like that type of ground. I had no idea of that. Is that generally the same for all over the world with pipes? Cool keep these post coming. Good read


Dear amethystguy:

I think the grass anomaly follows pretty much around the world if the climate is right. Another thing I've seen on occasion in the State Line Mining District is animals digging into the grass anomalies. This might be due to them trying to get water or maybe the grass has better nutrients. This "dugout" had blue clay about 1 meter down.


Click to view attachment

ASTROBLEME
CP
Fantastic info and pics Astrobleme.......very cool.
Can't wait to hear about the successful drill tests too.... happy088.gif When it comes time to start excavating let me know, I'm pretty good with some of them big yellow dirt tools! laugh.gif

I bet the water has alot to do with where the grass/trees grows too. With the natural depression holding more moisture longer in that area would definately cause different vegetation and fawna. Notice the aspen trees all right inside the pines? I'm no tree surgeon laugh.gif but I think aspens tap roots need to reach water where as pines don't do well over the long term in that same moisture. Gives us a clue, as it did many old time prospectors, to where water is or isn't close to the surface.


Hope to hear more about these soon, thanks for sharing. Great stuff!!

CP
ASTROBLEME
QUOTE (ColoradoProspector @ Dec 15 2008, 09:33 AM) *
Fantastic info and pics Astrobleme.......very cool.
Can't wait to hear about the successful drill tests too.... happy088.gif When it comes time to start excavating let me know, I'm pretty good with some of them big yellow dirt tools! laugh.gif

I bet the water has alot to do with where the grass/trees grows too. With the natural depression holding more moisture longer in that area would definately cause different vegetation and fawna. Notice the aspen trees all right inside the pines? I'm no tree surgeon laugh.gif but I think aspens tap roots need to reach water where as pines don't do well over the long term in that same moisture. Gives us a clue, as it did many old time prospectors, to where water is or isn't close to the surface.


Hope to hear more about these soon, thanks for sharing. Great stuff!!

CP


Dear CP:

I'd love to tell everyone all about these claims that have been approved for drilling by the USFS but I'm somewhat limited in the level of detail I can provide. My family's company accepted "an offer that can't be refused" a couple of years ago. Once that happened, the proprietary nature of those claims involved should be respected, so I prefer to not reveal too many details publicly. On the otherhand, since I have had so much trouble with claim jumping and vandalism, I am now publishing this map of those claims in an effort to inform the public as to these important holdings.

Click to view attachment

I can say that I have recovered diamonds with a No. 2 shovel on some these claims before they were under contract. It is my hope that others can find the information they need to go out and discover their own diamond deposit with the information I do post here.

Many diamond developers look for good drill core results as they are looking for large kimberlite resources that they can develop into a mine producing a revenue stream for many years forward. That takes lots of up-front money and these arrangements may not benefit the recreational prospector. Sure, a prospector can sell out for some quick cash but he/she will never see the full value for their discovery.

It has been my experience that lots of money can be made by extracting diamonds that have already been "mined by mother nature". Given the nature of kimberlite being much softer than the hard granite surrounding it, the erosion process liberates the diamonds naturally. No need for an expensive roller crusher or other high tech devices if you can find the pan that holds the diamonds within the crater walls. If the pan has already eroded out, look down-stream for the stones as they do not wear out easily. In areas that have been subjected to glacial ice movement (Colorado has some!), then you need to look down-ice to see if there are any concentrated placers.

The pan, crater, or diatreme in my mind, is acting much like a natural gold pan. It holds back the heavy minerals like diamonds and garnets while the other rock breaks completely down and then washes or blows away. This process lasts millions and millions of years and the crater like depressions holding the diamonds may not be easily recognized at first. Many fortunes have been made quickly by working diamonds concentrated into placers...especially the pans that form over the pipes. Small companies working in Africa have done this for years but the knowledge isn't really shared.

There is some public information that I can share that is available and may be of help, so here's the link...

http://www.northfortynews.com/Archive/A200...Exploration.htm

Sincerely,

ASTROBLEME
aka Johnny F. Tonko
President
Tonko Mining Company, Inc.
CP
Thanks for the added info Astrobleme and I completely understand that you can not reveal too much detail of ops up and coming.

Great advice for the diamond prospecting, thank you!

CP

amethystguy
Since I am not that familiar with claims can you tell me what the boxes mean? Are your claims inside all the boxes? What do the different colored boxes mean? What limits you to the amount of claims you can have? Thanks
ASTROBLEME
QUOTE (amethystguy @ Dec 19 2008, 10:03 AM) *
Since I am not that familiar with claims can you tell me what the boxes mean? Are your claims inside all the boxes? What do the different colored boxes mean? What limits you to the amount of claims you can have? Thanks

Hi amethystguy:

I'll try and answer you as best as I can.

My family's company holds numerous mining claims for uranium, lead, zinc, copper, silver, gold and gemstone deposits. The map I've put up is only for some of my claims. It only shows those claims that are presently under contract for diamond exploration by another company and have been the subject of claim jumping here in the Forum. There are other areas under claim in that area that aren't shown on the map. Those areas are public records and can be found by using BLM LR2000 or even hiring a mining consultant if need be. Remember that each individual claim has a Location Certificate and Claim Map on file in the County Clerk and Recorder's Office as well as the BLM State office. Those documents have the legal descriptions and the maps are on a 1 inch = 500 feet scale.

On the map I posted, the scale is in miles, so the detail isn't as good as in the public records. I just wanted to give folks an idea as to where the claim jumping has been the most severe and prompt them to use caution when prospecting in those areas. The pink lines indicate the boundary lines of my placer claims and the black lines indicate the boundaries of the lode claims. If you have a specific location in question, please feel free to contact me via e-mail at
johnny.tonko@meteoritecrater.com
for details.

There is no limit on the number of claims that a person can have. If someone has more than 10 claims nation-wide, they can no longer qualify for the small miner exemption. That means they must pay the annual assessment fees of $125 per claim plus additional county court filing fees as well.

My company pays many thousands of dollars each year in claim assessments. When you figure in all the additional costs for prospecting, surveying, lawyers, assays, geological consultants, accountants and taxes...there isn't much left to show as profit for all the work that goes into the venture. That is part of why it really upsets me when my claims get jumped, especially when I am willing to negotiate leases to interested parties for exploration on some claims. I really want to help folks learn about mining claims and will try my best to do that. However, there are a few people that abuse the records system to find where deposits are and then they make it a point to go there to collect minerals illegally. My hope is to prevent mineral trespass by education (this Forum is a great way to get out information) before the problem arises.

Hope this helps explain the map.

Sincerely,

ASTROBLEME
Bennie
sometimes people make mistakes even county clerks ,as they givin me the wrong page's on these claims ,

also due to the camping and fishing symbols on all of my road map's, I made the assumption that the bottom lake was unclaimable just like the bottom Creedmore Lakes were

Its not a "recreation area" even though there is many campsites on both sides of the lake and the maps say "picnick area" even your map does , my atlas had fishing symbols on this lake lol

Im sorry Astrobleme , I didnt know it was claimed and even claimable for that matter , im sorry , i would of never been there had i been furnished the correct information

it will not happen again , im a busy bee and i will be buzzing new areas

im sorry for reacting the way I did there tonko ,

Hausel said your a nice guy , this was a misunderstanding to boot , i was wrong

also i would like to see a clearer picture of that diamond, in the picture it resembled a tan chlorite, the picture is aweful dark though
ASTROBLEME
QUOTE (Bennie @ Dec 19 2008, 06:24 PM) *
sometimes people even county clerks make mistakes aswhell ,as they givin me the wrong page's on these claims ,

also due to the camping and fishing symbols on all of my road map's I made the assumption that the bottom lake was unclaimable just like the bottom Creedmore Lakes were

Its not a "recreation area" even though there is many campsites on both sides of the lake and the maps say "picnick area" even your map does , my atlas had fishing symbols on this lake lol

Im sorry Astrobleme , I didnt know it was claimed and even claimable for that matter , im sorry , i would of never been there had i been furnished the correct information

it will not happen again , im a busy bee and i aint buzzin near your holdings ever again

im sorry for reacting the way I did there tonko ,

Hausel said your a nice guy , this was a misunderstanding that blew out of perportion , sorry ,


also i would like to see a clearer picture of that diamond in the picture it resembled a tan chlorite, the picture is aweful dark though


Dear Bennie:

I ACCEPT YOUR APPOLOGY and thank you for being forthcoming about the problem. Let’s hope that others can learn from this example.

When you talk with Dan, please pass along my regards.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Sincerely,

ASTROBLEME
amethystguy
cool cool you guys keep on posting some good info because I have been learning a lot. Thanks
Bennie
QUOTE (amethystguy @ Dec 12 2008, 08:12 PM) *
I also like the fact that trees tend to not like that type of ground. I had no idea of that. Is that generally the same for all over the world with pipes? Cool keep these post coming. Good read


Trees dont like to grow into these pipes , I believe it to be a response from the tree , not wanting to set roots in the magnetic and conductive soils , I have seen baby trees growing in pipes but I Imagine the blue clays blended with the country grus to make a tolerable soil when these were setting roots(see attatched photo). Worldwide there is trees that do grow in pipes and its reported that some of these orchards are much lusher and green that the surrounding Trees , Probibly due to the high micro-nutrient content of these eroding blue clays. I dont believe the trees Cant Grow in kimberlite , I Believe it to be true that the trees just dont want to, but when tricked into growing in it , they grow great (notice the large tree bigger than all the others and the 2 baby trees all growing in a wheathered pipe)

I believe it to be forseeable that trees can grow in pipes , under rare unknown circumstances trees can be tricked into setting roots.
but Trees in general dont want to grow in it and they generally dont. but they could grow in it (see attached image) , I believe if theyre tricked into planting roots , theyll like it , and grow in it

Cool Stuff , hope this answered your question Jason ...

These pipes can be found under mountains under valleys and even under lakes ,

I estimate that Lake anomolies in general make up less than 8% of known kimberlites world wide.
as far as lakes , there has been a number of these lakes anomolies discovered in canada in recent years ,Some of these lakes are now world class Diamond Mines , and these lakes had very rich kimberlite but is burried under 50- 100 meters of unmine-able kimberlite, some examples of these lakes that are recieving a bunch of attention in canada are ; SnapLake ,KirklandLakes ,PellattLakes ,Wekusko Lakes ,Contwoyto Lakes ,small lake ,Smile Lake ,Mud Lake ,Whitefish Lake , and others , based of some of the field reports reguarding these Canadian lakes , I have a neutral opinion on the colorado lake anomolies, some cases were destinctly simmilar to Canada some werent.
These Colorado anomolies 10 miles South Of The State-Line District Could Be Great Sites , the likleyhood a collector would find anything is near impossible, and most if not all of these Lakes are claimed and off limits in that capacity , Diamonds when mined are found by bulk loads by the metric tons or tonnes and ore grades are calculated by the 100 metric tons or 100 tonnes , ore grades for commerrcial mining vary anywhere 35.CPHT's-300+CPHT's (carats per hundred tonnes) . Hausel wrote "even the richest deposits , diamond is less than 1 part per million"

as a personal request to anyone reading , please dont vandalize claims , or act on anything im posting , this is soley for educational purposes to those who want to learn a little about kimberlites and how to identify them ,

Im writing a great How To Book ; on how to find and identify kimberlites and even help you prove out an kimberlite or unconventional host rock in the field !!! .
should make for some interesting reading to say the least , when completed I hope to get her published iin the future
amethystguy
Do you guys have a specific book or reference material to check out regarding finding, identifying, and mining diamond deposits? I thought about getting Elrich & Hausel's book. I already have 2 or 3 books about diamonds but I want something more specific, more atuned to what I said. Any suggestiuons?
Bennie
QUOTE (amethystguy @ Dec 22 2008, 12:14 PM) *
Do you guys have a specific book or reference material to check out regarding finding, identifying, and mining diamond deposits?



the world of diamond deposits is a very secerative world , there is little spoken of the techniques and ways they find deposits and even less information on mining Feasability and Evaluation techniques reguarding Kimberlite , Most of which can and are done out in the field .

heres some of the Best Books ive found on the subject >>>>(see attached photos)<<<<

Hausel has a new book to be Released 2009 and will be readily available on amazon.com (see attached photos) that ones suppose to have a bunch of diamond info and other gem occurances , should be a good one
theres also a title I need to get called "Barren Lands" I hear its a Good Find too
russau
id like to read/aquire your book when its done! please let us know.
ASTROBLEME
Hello Everyone:

Hope you had a Merry Christmas!

The State Line Mining District where I have the diamond claims staked is related to an impact crater-like formation called the Virginia Dale Ring Dike Structure. The remnant ring dike rims that are still visible create a crater like expression at least 12 miles across. This structure has similar characteristics to the larger Vredefort Ring in South Africa. Several diamond mines had been developed around the Vredefort Ring long before it was confirmed as an impact crater. As yet, I have been unable to find firm evidence of impact at Virginia Dale but interestingly, the old Kelsey Lake diamond mine sits squarely in one of the rings!

It was amazing to me to see the kimberlite pipes emplaced into the deep granite crust west of Fort Collins and I was curious as to why it occurred there and not everywhere else that there was an ancient thick granite crust. I've developed a theory that diamonds were being brought up by the ancient impacts of large meteorites/comets and I have mapped many diamond areas around the globe that were located within or near impact craters. My thinking is that the over-pressure put upon the crust during an asteroid or comet impact has allowed for kimberlite magma to be ejected through the crater ring "cracks" generated as a result from a reflex shock wave generated during the hyper-velocity impact. I would say it is kind of like putting your finger tightly to an orange peel and watching the juice "erupt" from the skin. Kimberlite emplacement is always from deep sources and it is fast and quick...not prolonged like normal volcanism. As it turns out, the Russians had also observed this phenomenon and have made diamond discoveries near craters within the past few decades. The Virginia Dale Precambrian Ring-Dike Complex was first recognized by W. A. Braddock in 1962. In 1968, D. H. Eggler researched the structure and wrote his thesis on his findings. In 1970, R. S. Wing and L. F. Dellwig thought the structure may have had an influence on the Ferris-Aultman and other known Paleozoic age diatremes in the State Line vicinity.

Many scientists had dismissed the potential for meteorite/comet creation of the Vredefort Ring. The same thing has happened with Virginia Dale, in my opinion. Please consider my advice here...if you are prospecting an area near a known impact crater, I'd suggest that you also look for diamonds that may be associated with the crater. If the initial impact didn't bring diamonds to the surface, the resulting fractures in the granite may have allowed for later intrusive events to find a way up to the surface. In fact, many kimberlite pipes have shown multiple emplacements within the same diatreme. This makes sampling even more important since some parts of the pipe are too lean yet other intrusions have plenty of diamonds. Here's a USGS photo that I touched up with the ring dikes as related to the Kelsey Lake diamond mine.

Click to view attachment

I recently recommended a book to a poster that isn’t so much a prospecting guide but rather it is a scientific monograph devoted to diamond bearing rocks. The book is titled Kimberlites, Orangeites, and Related Rocks by Roger Howard Mitchell of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario Canada. It was published by Plenum Press and I think it is a great resource. The book summarizes much of what has been held “secret” for so long and it is a must have for anyone serious about finding diamonds. My copy ran about $200 US a few years ago so if you can find a good condition used copy, that may be the way to go. I hope that the information I've provided here is of some value to you.

Sincerely,

Johnny Tonko
amethystguy
Can you look for shocked quartz to determine if there was an impact? Well, I guess it would have been so long ago that most of the sign would have eroded away. good read Mr. tonko
ASTROBLEME
QUOTE (amethystguy @ Dec 27 2008, 08:42 PM) *
Can you look for shocked quartz to determine if there was an impact? Well, I guess it would have been so long ago that most of the sign would have eroded away. good read Mr. tonko


So much erosion has occured in the publicly accessible locations that I haven't been able to collect any shocked quartz specimens. Perhaps there are some remaining on the private lands but I don't have access into those areas.

JT
Bennie
thats some interesting concepts there JT ,

In the Kelsey Lake Area, "there are atleast 5 major Faults which help controll the location of the pipes" (Eggler and others) .
many other pipes throughout the district are ON or near major faults,
An excellent Documented Example Are the sloan 1&2 Kimberlites in colorado, where these pipes are situated ON the "copper king fault" and ON the "prairie divide fault "

throughout the district a good portion of all Anomolys are Fault controlled pipes , when looking for kimberlites, "im looking for kimberlite" lol , im looking for where it escaped. and where it came out the ground and can be found , im looking for all or any clues to help find them , I tend to stay looking around favorable precambrian basemented areas , Faults In Precambrian Basements are favorable terraines to host kimberlites , and are good places to look...
theres Millions's of faults to be investigated in these precambrian areas ,,,


Also some areas of these precambrian outcrops are host to hot springs and gold and platinum group mineralization and other anomolys and or subductions, which make portions unfavorable to host a kimberlite , like southern colorado the (AKA the gold rush ,Southern Colorado!!!),
But its all about the Kimberlite Intrusive , where did it pop out at , then Diamond Feasability and the possibility commercial mining is definatley another can of worms so to speak

most people wouldnt be able to identify a kimberlite , even Chronic and Ferris in 1960 when they discovered Both the ferris and aultman kimberlites in wyoming (which are private and owned) they didnt know it was a kimberlite ,they did notice lower paleozoic carbonates surrounded by precambrian the granite , discovered by chronic and Ferris in 1960 and identified as a kimberlite by McCallum in 1964
these anomolys apear to be partially fault controlled aswell as many kimberlites worldwide .

I found an interesting youtube video along with this picture which will kind of explain favorable terraines for diamonds this video is GREAT 1!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDqskltCixA now find the stablest and Oldest portions of the craton and look for an destinctly different intrusion there LOL

colorado can have kimberlites simmiliar to Africa and Australia and geochemmically tested some do ...

thanks for letting me contribute , if you wanna read anything else I authored youll have to wait til I complete my project - But I will let you all know

Thanks for reading and watching

Bennie

(photo courtesy of Dan Hausel)
amethystguy
Did any of you guys ever sluice "down stream" or in the drainage basin of these kimberlite areas? Didn't I read somewhere that 1000's of feet of overlay in that area had eroded away which would include the kimberlite pipes. That would make for areas of high concentrations of loose diamonds in gravels and stream beds. Another question why is there an absence of "yellow ground"? Is the kimberlite not decayed enough? thanks
jason
amguy
CP
Sure seems like a good idea Jason! happy088.gif

The impact theroy has me just fascinated! Thanks for the input Johnny. I can see how many folks in the public would have a real hard time with the whole scale of the theroy......an impact so severe that life on the planet probably changed dramatically and may well have caused the earths crust to crack (shock waves) possibly setting off dormant or un-erupted volcanos for hundreds of miles around the impact and then of course causing magmatic eruptions through the created faults. WHAT A SHOW THAT MUST HAVE BEEN!
atomic.gif
Then try to imagine on top of all this that when the impact occured, Colorado was, more than likely, completely underwater as well as not having the Rocky mountains evolution at that time, or at least not as they stand today or even close. WHEW!
I find the theroy not only fascinating but very fesable and I bet in a short time there will be some histroy re-written from the new impact studies recently undertaken by several researchers. TOO COOL! cool.gif

I smell smoke and me ears are hot!! wacko.gif chin.gif laugh.gif

Good stuff!
Bennie
as far as diamond bearing kimberlites in the stateline district go ,
lets go off facts ok

fact is all these kimberlites are found in an Archean portion of the Craton , Like everywhere else in the world that diamondifferious kimberlites are found . and these are a intrusions in this solid basement.

a volcanoe would burn a diamond up , a kimberlite freezez and isnt Molten hot , the second a diamond was Forged its frozen and preserved and within seconds kimberlite is transported to the surphase a frozen mass that thaws and then erodes , full of mantle rocks and misc specimens preserved in the kimberlite its undeniable the heat it takes to make a diamond but its undesputable at that temperature that shortly after the crystal is created it can be graphitized (burnt) .

as i posted before , when kimberlite erodes it releases acids and it disolves everything in it except diamond leaving a clay with other colored clays in it

WATCH THAT VIDEO 2 POSTS UP , you can see the kimberlites bieng made, CARBON DATING PROVES these pipes in colorado and wyoming to be between 200 and 800 million years old in age Coincidentally created at the same time these cratons were bouncing around which did infact happen, this is the best example i can give you as far as the creation and formation of diamond and kimberlites =Watch the videoArchean CRATONS
ASTROBLEME
QUOTE (Bennie @ Dec 29 2008, 05:26 PM) *
"a volcanoe would burn a diamond up , a kimberlite freezez and isnt Molten hot , the second a diamond was Forged its frozen and preserved and within seconds kimberlite is transported to the surphase a frozen mass that thaws and then erodes , full of mantle rocks and misc specimens preserved in the kimberlite its undeniable the heat it takes to make a diamond but its undesputable at that temperature that shortly after the crystal is created it can be graphitized (burnt) ."


Dear Bennie:

I am totally in agreement on the kimberlite "freeze" process. The currently accepted theory is that the large content of carbon dioxide gas trapped within the kimberlite starts acting as a cooling agent when the pressure is released. Some of the diatreme walls I've seen at State Line don't show an alteration from heat like is found in volcanic activity.

My thinking is that once the pipe gets shot up from an impact over-pressure event on the crust, the fast moving kimberlite magma looses pressure as it breaks the surface and the carbon dioxide turns to gas. This pressure drop "freezes" the pipe. Super fast emplacement and if conditions were right, diamonds can be carried up and preserved in the process.

Impacts have been responsible for some kimberlite emplacement around the globe, but not all. At State Line, I am just saying that it sure looks to me like an ancient impact kicked off the process. There have been at least two major intrusive events in some selected pipes. Perhaps the initial ring-dike creation was from impact and the other intrusions were from subduction melting or other gaseous events.

Johnny T.
Bennie
absolutley JT

diamond preservation in kimberlites isnt a big issue, as the MgO contents in picoilemenites almost always proves that "kimberlites" tend to preserve diamond,when indicatorminerals , Kimberlites are common worldwide and Kimberlites make ideal diamond mines.
these gas and xenolith rich peridotic breccias freeze and dont weather and decompose until introduced to water when unwheathered theyre full of many rare mantle treasures some of which are extremely valuable gemstones other than diamond (eclogites,lherzolites, moissanite),

also graphite mines and nearby areas are totally unrelated to kimberlite . diamonds recovered from such operations are always graphatized and of poor quality even as industrial use
ASTROBLEME
Howdy Everyone:

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and are ready for a Prosperous New Year.

Scientists just released this information today about comets/asteroids creating diamonds. They are too small to be of commercial value but they are diamonds related to impacts!

The links are;

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=did-a-...12900-years-ago

or

http://uk.reuters.com/article/scienceNewsM...E5013YZ20090102

or

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7808171.stm

or

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/science/...&ei=5087%0A

Hopefully one of the links will still work when you read this post. Google listed 114 articles this afternoon so the information should remain on someone's server for awhile.

Sincerely,

ASTROBLEME
Denise
Fantastic info Johnny! Thanks for posting the links for us. smile.gif
amethystguy
Mr. Tonko I really like your idea of the correlation between impacts and kimberlites. I was doing a little research on the subject. This is one of the most informative post I have read on any forum. Bennie and Mr. Tonko you guys have done a good job on this one
ASTROBLEME
QUOTE (amethystguy @ Jan 3 2009, 07:55 PM) *
Mr. Tonko I really like your idea of the correlation between impacts and kimberlites. I was doing a little research on the subject. This is one of the most informative post I have read on any forum. Bennie and Mr. Tonko you guys have done a good job on this one


Dear amethystguy:

Thanks for the kind words. I'm glad you find the information useful.

This recent discovery of nano diamonds resulting from high speed impact has gotten me thinking...again. Knowing that diamond crystals will grow larger in the right environment, lab diamonds being grown on seed crystals are a good example, I think it may be possible that impacts may have created the "seed diamonds" that are now being mined as kimberlite eruptions. As the continental plates subduct, the nano diamonds and other carbon gets dragged downward into mantle where it is melted. It seems plausible to me that on a long time scale, these nano diamonds could develop into larger crystals. When the diamond bearing rock gets ejected up through the craton, the diamonds are transported from their deep growth zones in the kimberlite slurry.

At least that is something to consider, I think.

Sincerely,

ASTROBLEME
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