Shallow alluvial diamond exploration with GENESIS airborne TEM (225Hz) system

The Vaalbos project area is situated in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa, and contains diamondiferous gravel deposits. Eluvial Kalahari sand covers most of the area and limits the surficial exposure of these gravel deposits. Shallow gravel channels are challenging targets to directly resolve with airborne geophysics, however bedrock geology and structure, which are controlling factors in gravel concentration, can be mapped successfully. A GENESIS electromagnetic, magnetic and radiometric survey was interpreted, resulting in a number of likely alluvial gravel deposit targets in the project area to be followed up.