Antarctic Diamonds Expected

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32265, 7 April 1970, Page 1

Antarctic Diamonds Expected

Diamonds were expected to be found in the ; Antarctic this year, Mr : R. B. Thomson, the sup- ! erintendent of the Antarctic division of the D.SJ.R., said in Christchurch yesterday.

He said indications of this were given at a conference in Washington late last year of scientists involved in Antarctic research.

The Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains in West Antarctica was where the discovery would probably be made, he said. “There is an area there known as the Dufek intrusive—a geological structure similar to the Rand in South Africa,” he said.

“We were given to understand that it i very likely that valuable minerals such as diamonds or platinum will be discovered, and that the scientists may not have to go very far below the rock surface to find these minerals,” he said. Field parties from a number of American universities have been working in the Sentinel Mountains in the last year or two. Mr Thomson said the Dufek intrusive was caused over millions of years by a spillage of materials precipitated by volcanic action.

Such a discovery again raised the question of providing some legislative machinery to guard against the economic exploitation of Antaretiea’s resources. The area where the discovery might be made was in territory to which no nation

had laid territorial claims, he said. The whole subject of exploitation, about which the Antarctic Treaty was curiously silent, would be raised informally by New Zealand at the next consultative meeting of the treaty powers, in Japan this year. The question would probably be raised formally t the seventh meeting of the consultative meeting, which was expected to be in New Zealand in 1972.

In the intervening period the other treaty nations , would have time to think about the exploitation problem, Mr Thomson said. Direct Evidence

Although serious exploration has not yet been carried out in the Antarctic direct evidence of ore minerals has been contained in numerous rock samples.

In 1963 a total of 222 minerals were tabulated from samples collected over the last 70 years. Fourteen wei. identified as being of commercial value. In 1960, one of the leading Russan geologists In the Antarctic wrote: "East Antarctica, which is part of the ancient Gondwanaland continent, may, like Australia, Africa, Brazil and India, contain certain valuable minerals including diamonds, gold, iron and mica, as well as coal deposits. West Antarctica, like the South American Andes, may contain deposits of lead, tin, copper and gold." An Australian scientist has also stated that his country’s Government placed great emphasis on the possibility of locating and using the mineral resources in its Antarctic territory.