Mano turns up diamonds on Kono ground

Following a reconnaissance stream-sediment survey and geological mapping, West African specialist Mano River Resources (MNO-V) has retrieved macrodiamonds from a newly discovered kimberlite dyke in the Kono region of Sierra Leone.

Mano River, which holds the Yengema, Njaiama and Nimini prospecting licences, about 400 km east of Freetown, found two kimberlite dykes in the western part of the Yengema and Njaiama concessions. They appear to be part of a dyke swarm extending on to the properties from the Koidu mine property, which has been in sporadic production since the 1960s. A 30-kg sample from one of the dykes returned two diamonds in the 0.5-to-1-mm size fraction.

Kimberlite float, determined to be hypabyssal-facies (dyke-type) and diatreme-facies (pipe-type) kimberlite, was also found in the course of mapping and stream-sediment sampling.

Mano has mineral-separation results from about three-quarters of the stream-sediment samples it collected during March and April, and many of the samples have yielded garnets, ilmenites and chrome spinels — all kimberlite indicator minerals. Two stream-sediment samples also contained chrome diopsides.