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Temperature of the Grease

The grease table works pretty well but it can never catch every diamond. One of the problems with a grease table has to do with finding out the right type of grease or mixture of greases to work well in water of any specific temperature.

If there is a problem where diamonds will not stick to grease, it often has to do with the inability of the machinery operator to maintain the proper temperature of the grease on the grease table, or find the correct grease mix for the water temperature.

If the grease gets too cold, it hardens and no diamonds will stick to it. If the grease is too warm, it can become so soft that globs of grease are taken away with passing stones and even the diamonds, with grease attached can be washed away. Under the later circumstances, any gold flour in the sample may find itself floating on the oily residue on the surface of the water - a real mess!

There ae many types of grease which can be used on a grease table but the best we are told, by an old Canadian Explorer who has found diamonds, is a mixture of bear grease and vaseline.

He would not tell us the proportions for various temperatures. It is often a tightly held secret to maintain a competitive edge.

Carbonate Coating on Diamonds

The nature of the Perdevlei kimberlite was realized following a careful assessment of the diamonds recovered. Iit was discovered that many were partially coated with a carbonate material. This coating can alter the surface characteristics of the diamond making grease table recovery techniques ineffective. This coating is derived from the carbonated ground waters, which have percolated through the upper portions of the pipe and is a feature of the De Beers owned Finsch kimberlites in this region of South Africa. Unweathered kimberlite at depth (below 30m) is not affected by the carbonated ground waters.

If the grease table was the method of choice for removal of diamonds from the sample, the coating could be removed either with a hot acid bath or an additional wash in an abrasive solution. The diamonds are not affected by either the acid bath or the abrasive wash.

Recovery of the carbonate coated diamonds was achieved by using a Sortex machine (x-ray recovery plant) from the sample tailing confirmed that the diamond grade at surface is significantly higher than previously indicated and explains why the Company and local prospectors, working at surface, could not recover diamonds in the quantities indicated by the deeper drilling and the mineral geochemistry.