Afri-Can Marine Minerals Corp. has completed an aerial survey and a marine geophysical survey of block B as well as the start of a geophysical survey of block J. Both these licence areas are located north of Luderitz, Namibia.
Block B measures 250 square kilometres, has a 48.5-kilometre-long coastline, and extends from the coastline seaward to between five kilometres and seven kilometres. Marine & Coastal Geoscience (Pty.) Ltd. of South Africa conducted the aerial survey because of the impossibility of the survey vessel to approach the shoreline at depths of five metres or less. The aerial survey covered a width of one kilometre along the 48.5-kilometre coastline where images of the submarine geology were produced at a resolution of four metres per pixel and indicate that the most prospective area stretches northward from the southern end of block B for 35 kilometres along the coast. This area is characterized by a rocky, rugged coastline with inlets, bays and headlands which may be indicative of potential diamond traps. The results of this aerial survey will be combined with those from the marine geophysical survey.
Marine & Coastal has completed the marine geophysical survey, and the preliminary processing on the side-scan sonar data has shown three prominent areas that may have a potential for diamond entrapment:
Nearshore sedimentary deposit: at the southern end of the licence area, a nearshore sedimentary deposit of approximately eight square kilometres was identified. This feature is fringed by NNW-SSE-trending depressions and gullies, some of which are more than one kilometre long.
Bedrock trap sites: an area of approximately 30 square kilometres extending from the coastline out to three kilometres offshore is characterized by good trap site potential with many shallow sediment patches overlying rugged bedrock.
Shallow depressions: an area of approximately 10 square kilometres extending from the coastline out to two kilometres offshore appears to have thin, basinal sediment cover. The sediments appear to cover shallow depressions that are potential depositional trap sites.
These initial findings are based only on the digital side-scan sonar imagery. Marine & Coastal will also complete the bathymetric and seismic interpretations within 60 days. The next exploration phase planned is a prospecting sampling of the feature targets delineated in the geophysical and areal surveys.
The survey on block J will begin on Jan. 12 and will be carried out on the prospective shoreward (150 square kilometres) underlain by crystalline bedrock and thin sediment cover. This area contains the potential for diamondiferous deposits that match the geological models of the surrounding producing mining licences. 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.
Blocks J and 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 kilometres west of Namco’s Mercury Island mining licence area (ML 36) and is adjoined to the south by Namibian Minerals Corporation’s (Namco) property (EPL 1950), which has a published resource of 653,000 carats (BOE Securities, Oct. 26, 1999).
Afri-Can’s new Web site is www.Afri-CanMarine.com.
