As the compilation of the data, ideas and suggestions presented at the DISCOVER GWYDIR FORUM #2 held in Warialda recently proceeds, the following extract from the 2008 Annual Report of mining company, Cluff Resources Pacific NL, indicates that they too are making discoveries.
The Bingara and Copeton diamond fields are the only known diamond fields in eastern Australia. Not only are the diamonds rare but those of the Bingara field are the hardest known diamonds, and therefore, the hardest natural substance on the planet.
Since first discovered in the late 1800’s, the “source” of the diamonds has remained a mystery. Possibly they are related to “pipes” from the subduction zone beneath the continent where the Pacific Plate has slid beneath the Australian Continental Plate.
The search goes on as the following extract attests;
From the ANNUAL REPORT 2008 – Cluff Resources Pacific NL – ABN 72 002 261 565
The main focus has been on solving the 125 year old puzzle of where the high grades of diamonds recorded on NSW’s Copeton and Bingara fields, worked for over 300,000 carats of diamonds during the late 1800s, are hidden.
This is being carried out by reinterpreting old percussion drill hole information and by drilling modern wire line core holes in key localities using our own drilling rig and existing staff. Sites adjacent to our existing shaft have been investigated to determine the closest point at which the high grade diamonds can be sampled.
The drilling confirms the previous interpretation that the high grade diamonds occur at the base of a hydrothermal alteration zone. This interpreted high-grade diamond zone can be accessed by a tunnel 50 metres long from the base of our existing shaft.
Exciting results with future potential for open cut mining have recently been obtained on the Bingara diamond field, where reinterpretation of historical mining data has led us to pitting in previously ignored places, with the recent discovery of an historic open cut refilled and levelled.
Railway tracks, including a set of points, extending into the hill toward an old shaft but terminating before they reach it, have been buried. This mysterious relic is only tens of metres from a recent sample site where “20 carats per hundred tonnes” of diamonds has been recovered in pitting.
The diamonds occur in possible hillslope scree, suggesting an outcrop nearby, probably beneath recent sediments, of high-grade diamonds.
Submitted by: Rick Hutton – President, Bingara and District VISION 20/20.
