A Review of the Kimberlites of the Democratic Republic of Congo - Geology and Resource Potential of the Congo Basin - page 356

Fig. 17.9 Tshibwe pipe, topographic contour map of crater walls as deduced from drilling, and longitudinal profile (redrawn from Fieremans and
Fieremans 1993 )

corresponds to lithospheric extension associated with the
southward propagation of the East African Rift

Conclusions
During the past century, the DRC (alternate historic
names Congo Belge, Zaire, Congo) has produced over
1,000 Mcts of diamonds, from alluvial and kimberlite
mining operations. Sixty-six kimberlites have been dis-
covered since 1946, with economic pipes restricted to the
Kasai region, where most of the alluvial mining
operations have also taken place. Published age
constraints on the kimberlites show Late Cretaceous
ages for the Mbuji Mayi kimberlites (~70 Ma) and
Eocene ages for the Kundelungu kimberlites (~32 Ma).
Emplacement of the Late Cretaceous kimberlites (Mbuji
Mayi, Tshibwe, Kasendou and Lukashi) was concomitant
with the deposition of Cretaceous sequences. The major-
ity of the pipes show crater-facies preservation and some
of the pipes are flared showing so-called

Acknowledgements We express our gratitude to Marc Fieremans and
Paul Kabongo (MIBA) for their hospitality during a mine visit in 2006
and discussions on the geology of the Mbuji Mayi kimberlites. Reviews
by John Gurney and Mike Lynn are gratefully acknowledged.

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'