B. E. Burakov, M. N. Goloburdina, S. A. Grakhanov

Prospects for primary diamond potential of the Anabar Massif

Abstract. There is a novel study of typomorphic features of picroilmenites, pyropes, and spinelides from the alluvium of the Legkiy Creek’s upper reaches, the right tributary of the Nalim-Rassokha River. Presence of a new kimberlite field in the Anabar Massif, in the basin of the Nalim-Rassokha and Ulakhan-Staraya rivers, confirms Krasnoyarsk geologists’ arguments (1984). Characteristic surfaces of mineral associations prove to pertain to the primary halo of kimberlite indicator minerals. Picroilmenites comparable to inclusions in diamonds and diamond-bearing peridotites are absent in the alluvium of the Bolshaya Kuonamka and Bargydamalaakh rivers draining non-diamond-bearing kimberlite fields. The quantitative ratio of pyropes of lherzolite (86 %) and dunite-harzburgite (11 %) parageneses is typical of kimberlites. The spinelides association originates from deep ultramafic rocks and the groundmass of kimberlites. There are grounds for discovering a new Rassokha diamond-bearing kimberlite field in the Anabar Massif, in the basin of the Nalim-Rassokha and Ulakhan-Staraya rivers.

Keywords: diamond, kimberlite indicator minerals, kimberlite field, Anabar crystalline massif, northeastern Siberian platform