GEOLOGICAL FEATURES: 7B
- Extent of the 7B mid-water diamond area: 100sq/km plus.
- Diamond grade at adjacent onshore mines averages 30 carats per hundred tons.
- Highest recorded grade from a section of the Swartlientjies paleo channel on the adjacent coastal plains – 377 carats per 100 tons (CPHT).
- Geological Fact: the largest concentration of all diamonds deposits on the West Coast occurs within 6 km of known paleo river channels.
- Side-scan sonar surveys on 7B has pinpointed at least seven major submerged paleo rivers channels on the concession area.
- Geological surveys indicate concession 7B contains reserves of close to 65 million tons of gravel. This does not include the northern 5 km section of the concession that has not yet been surveyed. This is estimated contain a further 25 to 35 million tons of gravel.
- This means the potential life of mine is close to 100 years as the 25 km as the 7B subsea deposits closely mirror the diamond mines on the coastal plains. These adjacent coastal deposits have been mined for close on 70 years.
- Divers operating in the adjacent no 7A shallow water surf zone concession have recorded average diamond grades of between five to eight carats per ton although some small boat operators have recovered grades of almost 200 carats per ton.
- Remote marine mining equipment could pave the way for similar recoveries from the concentrated gravel deposits in submerged diamond paleo river gravels on Number 7B.
The 100Sq/KM no 7b diamond concession, falls within the red boundary lines reflected on the map.
Click on map to enlarge
SAMPLING PROGRAM RESULTS
Zone One Diamond Exploration (Pty) Ltd, is a subsidiary of Mza Diamond Resources and manages prospecting and mining exploration activities on the 7B licence area on behalf of Zone One.
Following extensive side-scan sonar surveys the company deployed a small boat operator to carry out direct sight survey dives to visually confirm the existence of the channels pinpointed by earlier side-scan sonar surveys, and to identify gravel deposits in channel features and other trap sites.
Professional divers deployed by the contractor confirmed the existence and positions of the channels as well as confirming gravel deposits, large cobbles, and a giant pothole network west of Hondeklip Bay area.
Divers also identified an additional large channel feature not picked up with earlier side scan sonar. This large paleo channel lies south of Hondeklip Bay. This feature contains large gravel deposits and divers identified diamond indicator minerals such as jasper and olivine. The volume of gravel in this area would necessitate a large volume mining recovery method.
Survey dives on the southern bank of the Swartlienjies paleo river pinpointed a very large gravel field on a bend of the paleo channel. The gravel contains rounded boulders, polished pebbles, and other diamond indicator material such as jasper and olivine. The area has been earmarked as a prime area for early sampling.
A dive on the northern bank of the same channel also identified substantial gravel deposits while a major pothole was pinpointed on the northern side. The deeper area of the channel contains exposed gravel while the oxbow feature of the channel has been identified as an area with a particularly high potential.
To the south in the Langklip area large boulder beds, channel features and gravel deposits were also identified. A lack of deep-water dive equipment and a back-up portable decompression chamber and other safety concerns convinced the company to cut short the survey dives.
It was agreed that further survey dives with a larger boat, better safety gear, decompression equipment and a team of divers would be necessary to undertake proper mapping of the area as well as taking core samples.
The company hopes to launch a major a new high-tech bedrock survey to delineate different gravel deposits down to bedrock within the foreseeable future. At the same time the northern un-surveyed section of 7B will also be fully mapped and surveyed.
CALL FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST
The Directors of Mza Diamond Resources have called for expressions of interest from marine mining companies desirous to deploy remote marine mining equipment to extract diamonds from the Number 7B mid-water diamond concession.
The company also plans to deploy mid-sized mining vessels fitted with remote cutter heads and jet pumps to ensure continuous diamond production.
CAUTIONARY
Willem Steenkamp, CEO of Mza Diamond Resources, is the only authorized representative of the company mandated to negotiate and conclude prospecting agreements on behalf of the company.
It has come to light that a certain individual, acting without the authority of Mza Diamond Resources, wants potential operators to sign non-circumvention agreements with stringent penalties.
Willem Steenkamp can be contacted on + 27 82 775 9582 or via e-mail at info@mzadiamonds.co.za
Diamond production at land mines adjacent to number 7B marine diamond concession:
Historically land-based diamond deposits adjacent to the Number 7B Marine Diamond area such as those Mitchell’s Bay in the south, the old Trans Hex Mine near Hondeklip Bay, Old and New Koinghaas mines near the Swartlientjies River Area, the Visbeen deposits and the fabulously rich Kleinzee deposits to the immediate north have over decades delivered millions of carats of diamonds to world markets.
Trans Hex bought out the De Beers land mines as De Beers Marine ramped up marine mining operations with its marine fleet of ships off the west coast of Namibia now producing more diamonds from the sea annually than the yearly total diamond production from all its former land-based operations.
In recent times private operators using heavy duty mining equipment pushed large coffer dam walls into the sea on a land section of the Swartlientjies paleo river channel.
Here the operator reportedly recovered close to 40 000 carats from a small section of the exposed Swartlientjies channel. In earlier operations De Beers recorded record grades of 370plus carats per 100 tonnes from upstream sections of the same channel.
A three km section of this submerged paleo channel, nearly 500 metres wide in places, cuts across and mouths out on Number 7B concession.
The same operator also recovered large quantities of high-grade diamonds from coffer dams pushed into the sea in the Visbeen area adjacent to the northern part of the 7B concession area.
The 7B mid-water deposits in this area has not yet been surveyed and the owners of Mza Diamond Resources believe the multitude of highly enriched channels pinpointed and mined by De Beers on the adjacent coastal plains also cut across and mouth out on the 7B mid-water area.
Renowned government Geologists U Keyser, in his mammoth geological report penned in the mid-1960s after he drilled more than 60km of sample holes all along the West Coast, established that all major diamond deposits on the West Coast occurred within 6km of old paleo river channels.
Concession 7B arguably holds the largest number of submerged paleo river channel deposits on the whole of the West Coast. Sonar surveys have indicated that at least seven such major paleo river channels lie submerged on the seabed in the 7B- Mid-water Marine Concession.
We now know that these rivers dumped millions of tonnes of gravel into the sea. The 7B mid-water shelf is also criss-crossed by a multitude of deep channels, ravines and submerged cliffs along the submerged paleo river coastline. The submerged deposits closely mirror the coastal plain channels that were so successfully mined by De Beers and others for nearly 70 years.
The directors of Mza Diamond Resources are convinced that diverse mid-water remote mining equipment currently in the final phases of development will soon put vast diamond deposits within reach. The company is in talks with at least two groups who are on the cusp of major subsea mining technology breakthroughs.
Mza Diamond Resources together with Zone One Diamond Exploration hopes to be one of the first operators on the coast to deploy such equipment to bring submerged riches trapped at the bottom of the multitude of channels to the surface.
CONTACT
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Willem Steenkamp
(Chief Executive)
Mobile: + 27 82 775 9582
info@mzadiamonds.co.za
Vuyo Bavuma
(Director)
More about Marine Mining:
Article by top marine geologist Professor John Gurney on diamond deposits on the South African West coast.
