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Bending Clifford’s Rule
Posted by David
In his famed 1966 paper, T.S. Clifford noted that diamond-bearing kimberlite pipes were always ones that intruded regions of ancient continental crust. To be more specific, these regions are Archean in age (>2.5 billion years old) and formed the tectonically stable cores of continents known as cratons. Thus “Clifford’s Rule” states that diamondiferous kimberlites occur in geologic regions that have been tectonically stable (i.e. cratons) since the Archean and that diamond exploration should focus on those areas.
However, over the past forty years these regions of high diamond potential have been thoroughly investigated for diamond deposits and a number of world class deposits have been found in this manner, such as those in the Canadian arctic. As time passes, there are fewer and fewer areas of apparent diamond potential that remain unexplored. Diamond prospectors must start looking in places that appear at first not to follow Clifford’s rule. More diamond discoveries are being made in regions where Archean craton is not obvious.
Attending this August’s 9th International Kimberlite Conference, a prevalent theme was diamond exploration and discoveries in atypical areas falling outside of Clifford’s rule. For example, one presentation was regarding the nature of the Arygle mine, owned by Rio Tinto plc. Although situated in a Proterozoic (between 2.5 and 0.542 billion years old) mountain belt, Argyle has probably the highest diamond grade of all operating diamond mines. This presentation suggested the possibility of Archean mantle existing kilometers below the younger material at surface and thus providing the conditions optimal for diamond stability. Another example of developing properties in non-Archean areas is the diamondiferous Carolina kimberlite in Brazil. Located in the 1.8-1.2 billion year old Amazon craton, this kimberlite and others near it are being investigated by Sola Resource Corporation (TSX.V-SL). The characteristics of this kimberlite discovered thus far show no significant deviation from those of kimberlites situated in Archean cratons.
Regardless of how the current market environment is treating diamond stocks, the increasing core demand for diamonds has pushed diamond exploration to looking at areas previously considered to be at the fringes. Examples of significant discoveries in these areas include those mentioned above, plus Fort a la Corne, Saskatchewan; and Guaniamo, Venezuela.
The rising demand for diamonds has caused the small group of large companies who control the bulk of the rough supply (De Beers, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton) to raise prices. As with any commodity, when price rises, new technology and new exploration philosophies are employed to discover deposits in previously unexplored areas.