DETAILED PROFILE OF KEY MINERALS OF ANDHRA PRADESH

I. DIAMOND

Diamond, an allotriomorphic form of carbon, isthe hardest of all the known minerals. Gem
diamondsare used for ornaments and the off coloured diamondsin lepidary and other industry.In
Andhra Pradesh, diamond-bearing formationsare extensive and found mostly in the drainage basinsof
the Krishna and Penna Rivers. Ancient mining inthe Quaternary river gravels and Late
Proterozoicconglomerates was prevalent in different parts of thestate and the rocks hadproduced
many of thehistorically world famous diamonds viz. the Koh-inoor,the Great Mogul, the Orloff, the
Regent, theHope and the Pitt. The primary source rocks fordiamond, namely,kimberlite and lamproite
of LateProterozoic age and the secondary source rocks,conglomerates (Late Proterozoic) and river
gravel(Quaternary) are spread over large tracts. Kimberlitepipes are found in Wajrakarur Kimberlite
Field inAnantapur District and Narayanpet Kimberlite Fieldin Mahbubnagar District and Raichur
Kimberlite Fieldin Raichur (Karnataka) and Mahbubnagar districts,whereas, lamproite intrusions occur
in the NallamalaiFold Belt in the eastern part of the Cuddapah Basin.

Diamondiferous conglomerates are found (I) in theCumbum pebbly sandstone (NallamalaiGroup)

butrestricted to Kolluru area in Guntur District (ii)associated with the Banganapalle Quartzite
occurringover 240 km along the western margin of the KurnoolBasin and 120 km in the Palnad Basin
and (iii)associated with Jurassic and Mio-Pliocenesandstones in KrishnaDistrict. The
Quaternarygravels are found mostly along the banks of Krishna,Penna andSagileru rivers.

Anantapur District

Wajrakarur in the District is well-known fordiamonds. Old mining activity is known from this area. Till
now, a total of 29 kimberlite bodies (pipes/dykes) have been discovered in WajrakarurKimberlite Field
(WKF) spread over 80 x 70 kmarea. The kimberlite occurrences are locatedaroundWajrakarur,
Lattavaram, Anumpalle, Venkatampalle,Muligiripalle, Timmasamudram, Kalyandurg,Gollapalle and
Chigicherla. Out of all the pipes, 26have been explored by GSI and majority of them arefound to be
diamond bearing.

The P-15 kimberlite dyke (30m x 190m)discovered recently is located at about 300m northof P-
2kimberlite body of Wajrakarur-Lattavaramcluster, WKF. Microdiamonds were recovered fromthe
heavy concentrates of stream sediments fromPottipadu area.

The largest diamond recovered so far weighs16.30 carats from Pipe-10 at Venkatampalle.However,
diamonds weighing up to 90 ct. have beenreported by the villagers in different parts of the WKF.

Timmasamudram kimberlite cluster forms apart of WKF. Out of the six kimberlite bodiesdiscovered
(TK-1, TK-2, TK-3, TK-4, TK-5 &TK-6), TK-4 kimberlite is diamondiferous andyielded 507 diamonds
weighing 133.13 carats fromabout 208 tonnes of kimberlite material, indicatingthe grade to be 64
carats per hundred tonnes. Thelargest diamond recovered is 4.37 ct, and the averagesize of the
diamond is 0.26 ct. Most of the diamondsare of gem quality. Peruru block of Anantapur districtis the
southern continuity of the Timmasamudramblock wherediamond occurrences from gravel arereported
from the areas around Nutimadugu and RallaAnantapuram.

Three kimberlites are located by GSI within theAnumpalle Cluster namely P-10, P-11 and P-12.Four
more kimberlites were added by CREAI, theyare 3-055 (7.5 ha), 3-021 (0.4 ha), 3-016 (22 ha)and 3-
008. All these kimberlite were proven to bediamondiferous by caustic fusion analysis. The 3-
055kimberlite is located within an E-W trending myloniteshear zone within the Peninsular Gneisses
and occurs650 metres to the north west of P-10 (Anumpalle)kimberlite. The kimberlite is overlain by 4-
5 metresof alluvium and colluvium. The 3-016 kimberlite isactually a complex dominated by
outcropping andsub cropping granitoid breccias with lesser shoots ofkimberlite breccia and a Sovite
(Ca Carbonatite)stock. The 3-021 kimberlite is very similar to the 3-016 kimberlite both petrologically
and also indisposition. The 3-021 kimberlite is located 1 kmnortheast of P-11 kimberlite and 3.5 km
WSW ofP-10 kimberlite. The 3-008 kimberlite is located 1.8km east of P-10 kimberlite and is
interpreted tocomprise a series of narrow kimberlite stringers.

The Brahmanpalle cluster is currently definedby a single kimberlite namely B1 locatedapproximately

12 km to the northeast of Kalyandrugcluster of kimberlites. The 0.6ha B1 kimberlite intrudesa NE
trending shear zone defined by chlorite schistsand sheared ultramafics within the granitoid gneissesof
the Archaean Peninsular Gneiss Complex. It isrepresented by multiple hypabyssal
intrusivesdifferentiated on the basis of variable macrocryst,xenolith and xenocryst content and the
occurrenceof segregation textures

Cuddapah District

Old workings for diamond are known from thePenna gravels occurring at Chenur,
Kanuparti,Kondapeta and east of Jammalamadugu.The gravelswere deposited over the
Kurnool/Cuddapah rocks.

Guntur District

Historically famous Koh-i-noor and otherdiamonds are reported to have been recovered fromKolluru,
located on the right bank of the KrishnaRiver. Ancient workings are found in theterracegravels and
Cumbum pebbly sandstone. Jean BaptistTavernier, a French traveller, recorded that about60,000
people were working for diamonds in Kolluruarea during his visit in 17th century. Besides
Kolluru,extensive workings are found in the terrace gravelsin Mallavaram area down stream of
Nagarjunasagar.Besides, Banganapalle conglomerate, the lower partof which was diamondiferous
also occurs in this area.Virgin gravel patches are found in Bodanam-Chityalaarea.

Krishna District

Famous ancient workings for diamond are seenat several places in the terrace gravels close totheleft
bank of the Krishna River. Prominent among themare at Paritala,
Battinapadu,Kodavatikallu,Patempadu and Ustapalle. GSI investigated a fewblocks in these areas
and established diamondiferousnature of the gravels but the diamond content isgenerally poor. About
18 Mt of diamondiferousgravel was established in Veladikottapalem area. Thethickness of gravel in
this area is nearly 4 m. Theoverburden, comprising alluvium and silt is 1 to 6 mthick and it is more at a
few places.

A total of 27 major lamproite bodies located in12 clusters are reported from Krishna
andNalgondadistricts. These clusters are designated as “KrishnaLamproite Field” (KLF) and the
clusters are locatedaround Ramannapeta, Peddavaram, Vedadri,Pochampally, Jayanthipuram,
Gopinenipalem,Tirumalagiri, Anumachapalli, Sher Mohammadpeta,Ramapuram,Nallabandagudem
and Reddikunta. Thelamproites occur mostly as dykes and volcanic necks/plugs and exhibit rare,
diverse and complex mineralassemblages and textures with varying proportionsof diopside, leucite,
phlogopite, richterite, olivine,enstatite and sanidine. The KLF lamproites, in generalare fine grained
and typically vesicular. No diamondwas recovered from 15 tonnes of lamproite materialcollected and
processed from Vedadri andNallabandagudem lamproites.However, furtherexploratory work is
required to locate the deep seatedlamproite bodies present if any in the area.Besides, old workings
for diamond are found inthe Quaternary gravels and sandstones of Gollapalle(Jurassic) and
Rajahmundry (Mio-Pliocene)Formations of Malavelli area to the north east ofVijayawada.

Kurnool District

The Tungabhadra Kimberlite Field discoveredrecently is located about 25 km south of

RaichurKimberlite Field (RKF). There are seven pipesMNK-1 and MNK-2 in the Mantralayam
clusterand CG-1, CG-2, CG-3 and CG-4 in Chagapuramcluster. The Naddigadda Malkapur
Kimberlite(MNK-2) in Emmiganur area is a highly weatheredkimberlite measuring 450m x 370m in
dimension andis covered mostly by thick black soil. Texturalcharacteristics indicate that it represents
diatremefacies kimberlite with a geochemistry comparablewith that of the kimberlite of Wajrakarur
KimberliteField (WKF).

Old workings for diamond are found extensivelyin the basal conglomerate of the
BanganapalleQuartzite. Two prominent conglomerate beltswherein major workings are found are (i)
30 km longBanganapalle-Nereducherla belt and (ii) Ramallakota– Yambayi belt. Important areas are
Banganapalle,Vajragiri, Munimadugu, Racherla, Gattimanikonda,Ramallakota, Balapuram,
Pendekallu, Virayapalle,Yambayi and Tammarajupalle.The NMDC carried out assessment of
diamondgrade of the conglomerates in the Ramallakota-Yambibelt during 1968-71 and the GSI in the
Banganapalle-Nereducherla belt during 1980-87. Theconglomerate is generally between 1 and 50
cm,average being 10 cm. Exploration carried out in selected blocks of the Banganapalle-
Nereducherla belt indicated that the diamond grade is 1 to 3 ct/100 t, and conglomerate resource of
3.64 Mt. Similar grades were obtained by the NMDC in Ramallakota area. The gravels along the
banks of the Krishna River at Panchalinga, Marugutti, etc. were worked in the past. Old workings are
also known in Basavapuram area, at the base of the Nallamalai range in the Kundair valley and at
Laxmipuram along the banks of the Hindri River, a tributary to the Tungabhadra. Neoproterozoic
lamproite dykes, emplaced into the Meso- Neoproterozoic Cumbum Formtion are prominently found
along WNW-ESE to NW-SE trending enechelon fractures in Chelima area and also at Pachcherla and
Zangamarajupalle in Prakasam district and are included in the Chelima Lamproite Field. Prominent
old workings (5 to 15m wide and > 30m deep) are recorded, presumably for diamond at Chelima.
Diamonds are also reported from the gravels of the Sagileru and Kundair rivers, both draining the
Chelima and its adjoining area.

Nellore District

Terrace gravel flats extending over 35 km from Somasila to Sangam are reported to contain a few old
workings for diamond at Challapalle, Uppalapadu and Battipadu.

Prakasam District

Extensive gravel deposits are found all along the Sagileru Valley and old workings in the surface
gravels over 40 km between Giddalur and Porumamilla around Kalasapadu, Adimurtipalle, and
Sanjivaraopet. These gravels were derived from the Nallamalai hill range. A few gravel samples tested
by the GSI established the diamondiferous nature of the gravels.