Kimberlites: Magmas or mixtures?

Although the presence of xenocrystic olivine is widely recognized in kimberlite, there is little consensus about its contribution to the existing estimates for the composition of kimberlite magma. Whole rock geochemistry is critical to the debate regarding the composition of kimberlite magma, however, it has received little attention as an indicator of diamond grade due to conventional thought that diamonds are xenocrysts unrelated to their host kimberlite. The Foxtrot kimberlite Field in Northern Québec is comprised of at least three distinct kimberlite intrusions exhibiting variation in both diamond grade and geochemistry making it an ideal suite with which to test a possible correlation between diamond grade and whole rock composition. Olivine is ubiquitous (30 to 70%) in the Foxtrot kimberlites and exhibits a restricted composition that overlaps that of olivine in harzburgite xenoliths suggesting that the majority of olivine is xenocrystic. Carbonate is also abundant (8 to 35%) in the Foxtrot kimberlites and exhibits magmatic textures requiring that carbon be considered in any petrogenetic model for the Foxtrot kimberlites. Pearce element ratio analysis assuming P as a conserved element indicates that much of the major element variation in the Foxtrot kimberlites can be explained by variable amounts of olivine and orthopyroxene in proportions (~ 80/20), similar to that of cratonic mantle xenoliths. The xenocrystic nature of olivine requires that the contribution of mantle harzburgite must be removed to constrain the composition of the magma. The calculated magma composition that results from the mathematical removal of olivine and orthopyroxene (80/20) from the whole rock compositions is significantly poorer in MgO (15 wt.%) and silica (~ 24 wt.%), but CO2 rich (~ 17 wt.%) compared to previous estimates for kimberlite magma. The Foxtrot kimberlites are best modelled as mixtures of harzburgite mantle and a relatively carbonate-rich magma. According to this model the correlation between whole rock composition and diamond grade reflects the fact that the diamonds are also xenocrystic and sourced in the harzburgite component.