The company has concluded an agreement with Marine & Coastal Geoscience (Pty.) Ltd. of South Africa to conduct a detailed geophysical survey of the Woduna concession (block J) and the Together Quando concession (block B). The survey will precede sampling programs which will enable the company to establish the presence of diamonds and the delineation of deposits.
The survey will cover a total of 1,750 line-kilometres at a cost of $290,000 (U.S.). The survey will begin on Dec. 5 and last approximately three weeks. The final interpretation and reports should be completed within three months following the end of the survey.
The survey on block J will be carried out on the prospective shoreward (150 square kilometres) of the licence underlain by crystalline bedrock and thin sediment cover. The zone identified contains the potential for diamondiferous deposits that match the geological models of the surrounding producing mining licenses. The survey plans to collect 950 line-kilometres of high-resolution geophysical data. The interpretation will include an evaluation of depositional environments with potentially diamondiferous sediments and the delineation of sampling targets.
The survey on block B will be carried over the entire concession area with targeted water depths ranging from 15 and 30 metres. It is expected that at least two important terraces should be present within the boundaries of the concession. These terraces are anticipated at water depths ranging between 20 and 29 metres. Elsewhere along the West Coast, terraces at these depths are known to host diamond deposits. The survey plans to collect 800 line-kilometres of high-resolution geophysical data. The interpretation will include an evaluation of depositional environments with potentially diamondiferous sediments and the delineation of bulk sampling targets.
Blocks J & B lie on the northern boundary of the known rich diamondiferous deposits currently being mined along the south and central Namibian West Coast. To the south of these projects, an inferred resource exceeding 4.25 million carats has been estimated for the region between Halifax and Mercury Islands (Marine & Coastal, June 6, 2000). Block J lies approximately 10 km west of the Namco’s Mercury Island mining license area (ML 36) and is adjacent to the south to Namibian Minerals Corporation’s (Namco) property (EPL 1950), which has a published resource of 653,000 carats (BOE Securities, Oct. 26, 1999).
