Brazil new focus of global diamond discovery hunt

Brazil could well be the sleeping giant of the international diamond industry’s....

  Brazil could well be the sleeping giant of the international diamond industry’s quest to make new discoveries, according to Redox Diamonds’ Chief Geologist, Grant Boxer.Mr Boxer said Brazil was an ideal country for junior diamond explorers, as several of the majors, including Rio Tinto and De Beers, had given up in the region, which has a long history of alluvial diamond production.“Many very large high value diamonds have been discovered in Brazil over the years,” Mr Boxer said.“Recent developments in the geology of Brazil indicate that many areas considered ‘off-craton’ by previous explorers are in fact in ‘on-craton’ settings, and that significantly upgrades the diamond prospectivity of these areas.“The region is ripe for second pass re-evaluation of data without the ideological constraints of the big companies,” he said.As well as diamond projects in China and Tanzania, Perth-based Redox Diamonds is involved in a joint venture in Brazil, with tenements covering over 1000sqkm and including about 150 kimberlite targets, 59 with kimberlitic indicator minerals to date.Redox has plans to undertake bulk sampling on diamondiferous kimberlite targets in Brazil and Tanzania in 2008.