Afri-Can Marine Minerals has released positive results from a marine delineation geophysical survey of Block J licence area located north of Luderitz, Namibia. The geophysical survey conducted by Marine & Coastal Geoscience (Pty.) Ltd. of South Africa identified at least 17 prospective features, present in eight geomorphological features, with potential for diamond entrapment. Marine & Coastal has recommended a sampling program in order to determine and modelize the geology of each site and consequently prove the presence of diamonds.
Block J, measuring 994 square kilometres, is 45 kilometres long and 21 kilometres wide. It extends between the 70-metre and 167-metre water depth isobath. Marine & Coastal collected 910 line kilometres of high-resolution geophysical data. A variety of prospective features were identified and outlined in the detailed exploration area. The features represent a variety of depositional environments occurring at water depths ranging between 75 metres and 110 metres. Bathymetric, seismic and sonographic data interpretation reveals the presence of eight major geomorphological areas in which occur a number of features that could be diamondiferous in content:
northern deposit — fine sedimentary deposit with four depressions draining into an embayment within the deposit;
northern reef — big reef complex entirely made up of crystalline bedrock outcrops with minimal coarse sediment cover;
northern embayment — large northwest-facing embayment extending for 12 kilometres by three kilometres in its central part;
northern terrace — Low-gradient terrace extending 13 kilometres by 3.8 kilometres in its largest part;
central reef — reef complex made up entirely of crystalline bedrock;
southern deposit — sedimentary deposit extending 21 kilometres from the southern boundary of the concession;
southern depression — sedimentary deposit consisting of an assemblage of mostly fine sediment; and
southern reef — occurrence of semi-isolated reefs consisting of outcrops of crystalline bedrock.
Afri-Can Marine Minerals is currently designing a target-driven prospecting program in order to identify diamond resource areas for further development. The prospecting program will be implemented in three phases: initial sampling, follow-up sampling and mine evaluation sampling. The initial sampling program layout will be completed within two weeks and the contractor will be named soon after. The sampling schedule will be determined with the contractor and shareholders will be kept advised of developments.
Blocks J lies 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 the project, an inferred resource exceeding four million carats has been estimated for the region between Halifax, N.S., and Mercury Islands (Marine & Coastal, June 6, 2000).
