The Edward Creek Diamond Project is exciting because:

• abundant Diamond Indicator Minerals ("DIM"s - including picroilmenite, pyrope garnet and chrome spinel) tell us one or more kimberlite pipes (potential diamond mines) exist in the area;
• diamonds recovered indicate that at least one kimberlite is likely to contain diamonds;
• the kimberlite pipes are likely to be well preserved (not eroded) and therefore potentially large;
• targets identified from air photo and magnetic data are ready for drill testing;
• if drilling identifies kimberlite rock at any one of the targets RLC will have discovered a new kimberlite province with the potential to contain Australia's next diamond mine.

Such a discovery would substantially increase the value of the Project and is likely to have a significant effect on the value of the Company.

To view some of our kimberlite targets:

click here

or here

 

The Edward Creek Diamond Project is located 750 km NNW from Adelaide in South Australia. It is located on the Gawler craton. The Project area is secured by ELs 3250, 2755 & 2892 (all 100% RLC) which cover an area of 2,935 square kilometres.

RLC has identified a number of large kimberlite targets which it intends drilling.

RLC has held title to the Edward Creek Project since 1988. During this period it has conducted exploration in its own right and through various prior joint ventures with companies including: Mt Gipps Ltd (now Zeolite Australia Ltd), CRA Exploration Pty Ltd, Caldera Resources N.L. and Werrie Gold Ltd.

In 1894 a one carat diamond (the Algebuckina diamond) was recovered from a site located about 35 kilometres north from EL 3250 by alluvial gold miners in the Peake Creek. Nine macro-diamonds have been recovered from the Edward Creek Project area:- eight by Stockdale Prospecting Limited in 1985 and one during RLC's tenure.

The Gawler Craton meets the general regional age and stability criteria for economic diamond pipes. The oldest rocks forming the craton are the Sleaford and Mulgathing complexes with ages of between 2300 million and 2600 million years old. The craton has not been substantially deformed or remobilized in the last 1,450 million years. Regional geological criteria often considered necessary for diamondiferous kimberlite occurrence include ancient cratons (typically at least 2,500 Ma) or cratonised provinces older than 1,800 million years.

All kimberlites located on or near the Gawler Craton dated so far are Jurassic in age.

At Edward Creek, the presence of younger cover rocks, including Jurassic, is an indication that vertical erosion of Jurassic aged rocks has been limited. Therefore kimberlites of Jurassic age at Edward Creek will be relatively uneroded and as a consequence preserved. This is an important contrast with other cratonic regions of Australia that currently attract diamond explorers (notably the Yilgarn, Pilbara, Kimberley and North Australian cratons) where substantial vertical erosion is thought to have occurred, which may have eroded and removed substantial sections of kimberlite pipes.

There are strong indications of the presence of kimberlite(s) - rocks which have the potential to contain diamonds in economic quantities:

• abundant kimberlitic indicator grains (including picroilmenite, pyrope garnet and chrome spinel).
• picroilmenite grains with chemical compositions which are unequivocally derived from kimberlite.

And the recovery of nine macro diamonds (> 0.5 mm) is a strong indication that such kimberlite(s) are diamond sources.

Edward Creek has abundant kimberlitic grains which have been dispersed from a kimberlite - a potential source of diamonds. Abundant picroilmenite (more than 5,000 grains recovered) in the area is a strong indication that kimberlite is present. Chrome spinel grains recovered from the area have chemical compositions similar to compositions of chrome spinel which formed under the same pressure and temperature conditions under which diamond forms. The recovery of 9 macro diamonds from the Project area also indicates a diamond source.
 

	Picroilmenite: Cr2 03 vs MgO wgt %
Cr2O3 wgt%
	MgO wgt%
	Picroilmenite plots for grains recovered from the Edward Creek region. Fifteen of these analyses are of grains recovered from the same locations as the diamond sites. Two grain populations are indicated: one at about 9 % MgO and the second with 14 % MgO. Both are unequivocally derived from kimberlite source rock(s)

Many of the DIM grains recovered have surface textures indicating small travel distances and therefore a nearby source.

        Click here to view a diamond and indicator grains from Edward Creek.
 

Several circular features evident in aerial photographs, some with weak coincident magnetic anomalies, are identified as possibly caused by kimberlites. A selection of these are targeted for drilling. The targets are large by Australian standards, up to 1000 metres in diameter. Some of these drill targets are located less than 6 km from where the diamonds and abundant kimberlitic indicator grains have been found.

 

Click here for a larger view, showing local diamond and indicator grain distributions.

The Gauntlet measures 1,000 metres in diameter. It is a prominent circular photo feature and has an associated magnetic anomaly.

A lime-rich marker bed forms a rim to the feature which is clearly visible in aerial photographs, giving the anomaly a distinctive crater-like appearance. The marker bed has been intersected over the 33 - 34 m depth interval in the centre of the anomaly. Slumping caused by compaction of the underlying material is likely to have created the observed anomaly. These observed features are consistent with those that could form as a result of a large diameter kimberlite buried beneath sediments at the Gauntlet.

Drilling at the Gauntlet has reached a depth of 326 m (drillhole G7) and intersected an anomalous sequence of unconsolidated carbonaceous material which contains chrome spinel grains. Several of these chrome spinel grains have high chrome (60 - 69 wt% Cr₂O₃), low titanium (<0.5 wt% TiO₂) and high magnesium (10 - 15 wt% MgO) which is an indication that their source has sampled potentially diamondiferous mantle.

The Gauntlet is interpreted to be the surface expression of a buried crater overlying a large kimberlite. The carbonaceous material may be either weathered kimberlite or sediments deposited in a crater formed due to slumping resulting from subsidence following the eruption of a kimberlite.
 

In central and southern African occurrences of kimberlite, sedimentary basins extend in some cases to depths of over 300 metres below the present land surface. Reedy Lagoon has intersected 213 m of anomalous material which may be similar crater fill sediments. If this material is derived from a kimberlite, the chemistry of chrome spinel grains in it suggests that such a kimberlite is likely to contain diamonds.

The Gauntlet Anomaly may be the surface expression of a buried, well preserved large (50 ha) kimberlite and will be drill tested as soon as adequate funding is sourced.

    Click here to view the interpreted history of the Gauntlet Anomaly.
 

Several other sites with geological features similar to those shown by the Gauntlet are identified within EL 3250. Kimberlites generally occur in clusters. Once one has been identified discoveries of additional pipes normally follow.

To view images of some of RLC's kimberlite targets:

click here

or here

WK57 is a semi-circular photo feature 1,500 metres in diameter. It is less than 5 kilometres from the Gauntlet and appears to be similar, but is partly obscured or eroded. Stream sediment samples have recovered picroilmenite and pyrope garnet from the immediate surrounds of WK57.

WK57 was one of the targets drilled in December 2003.
For a discussion of the results of this work, please   click here.
 

The Edward Creek Project holds potential to contain a kimberlite province containing large-diameter kimberlite pipes in an "on-craton" environment where diamonds are associated with kimberlitic grains. Drilling planned over the next twelve months will test this potential.