Toward A New Scientific Discovery of the Unique Gold and Diamond-Bearing Agit Khangay and Khuree Mandal Astropipes of Mongolia

International Journal of Modern Research in Engineering and Technology (IJMRET)
www.ijmret.org Volume 3 Issue 1 ǁ January 2018.
w w w . i j m r e t . o r g I S S N : 2 4 5 6 - 5 6 2 8 Page 62
Toward A New Scientific Discovery of the Unique Gold and
Diamond-Bearing Agit Khangay and Khuree Mandal
Astropipes of Mongolia
DORJ DORJNAMJAA, GUNDSAMBUU ALTANSHAGAI
Institute of Paleontology and Geology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
ABSTRACT: This paper presents summation of twenty-one years investigation of the unique gold and diamond-
bearing Agit Khangay and Khuree Mandal astropipes of Mongolia. These astropipe geostructures are as
selective examples amongst for four impact meteorite craters of Mongolia (Figure 1): Agit Khangay (10 km in
diameter, 470
38' N; 960
05' E), Khuree Mandal (D=11 km; 460
28' N; 980
25' E), Bayan Khuree (D=1 km; 440
06' N; 1090
36' E), and Tsenkher (D=7 km; 980
21' N; 430
36' E). The term “astropipes” [1] is a neologism and
new scientific discovery in Earth science and these geostructures are outlandish in certain aspects. Particularly
the Agit Khangay and Khuree Mandal astropipes are genuine “meteorite crater” geostructures but they also
contain kimberlite diamonds and gold. Suevite-like (agizite) rocks from the astropipes contain such minerals, as
coesite, stishovite, moissanite (0.6 mm), kamacite, tektite, khamravaevite (mineral of meteorite-titanic carbon),
graphite-2H, chondrite, picroilmenite, pyrope, phlogopite, khangaites (tektites, 1.0-3.0 mm in size), olivine, etc
[2]-[3]. Most panned samples and hand specimens contain fine diamonds with octahedral habit (0.2-0.5 mm,
6.4 mg or 0.034-0.1 carat) and gold (from 0.13 to 6.33-32.0 g/t). Of special interest is the larger number of the
black magnetic balls (0.05-5.0 mm) are characterized by high content of Ti, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Mn, Mg, Cd, Ga,
Cl, Al, Si, K. These described meteorite craters possess reliable topographic, geological, mineralogical,
geochemical, and aerospace mapping data, also some geophysical and petrological features (especially shock
metamorphism) have been found, all of which indicate that these geostructures are a proven new type of gold
and diamond-bearing impact geostructure, termed here “astropipes”. The essence of the phenomenon is
mantle-crust mix and fluidization of the combined nucleosynthesis-magmatic evolution-palingenesis interaction.
Keywords : Astropipe, Impact crater, Crater rim, Central uplift, Funnel, Shatter cones, Diamond, Moissanite,
Khamravaevite, Gold, Spherules meteoritic iron, Khangaites, Agizites
I. INTRODUCTION
In 1997, D.Dorjnamjaa managed to prove
that the Agit Khangay crater is a meteorite crater
and further reported [1]-[7] the Mongolian
astropipes are genuine „meteorite crater‟
geostructures and best preserved on local relief.
They also contain kimberlite (mantle-derived)
diamonds and gold. According to current research
[4]-[5], this mighty catastrophe took place within
few seconds for example during the Paleogene
(about 66.0 million years ago). Within the terrestrial
planets, this process is considered as a rare
phenomenon that occurs mainly in the evolution of
the atmosphere, lithosphere, and mantle. As
everybody knows [7]-[11] that kimberlites are the
principal source of diamonds. The diamonds are
xenocrysts derived from disaggregation of mantle
material, and the kimberlites are merely the vehicle
that transported them from the upper mantle (>150
km depth below the graphite-diamond phase
boundary) to the crust [8]-[9]. Diamond-bearing
kimberlites are located in Archean cratons such as
the Kaapvaal craton of southern Africa, Siberian
craton and the Kimberley craton in W. Australia.
The main positions of this model are as follows:
a) geochemical composition of impact diamond-
generated rocks a sequence of their bedding within
the astropipes and diamond contents are interrelated
and determined by depths of impact-generated or
kimberlite-like melt formation within mantle; b) an
additional factor of geophysical, petrological and
geochemical diversity of impact-generated
formation is considered to be the compositional
inhomogeneity of magma generation zones of the
mantle at the expense of inclusions of eclogite-like
paragenesis, enhancing the intensity of mica
kimberlite formation comparing with baric standard
and their corresponding diamond contents; c)
evolution of impact diamond-generated magmatism
had been proceeding from more deep-seated (>100
km) levels to less deep-seated (<100 km) ones, and
magma generation zones in the considered astropipe
regions, that was likely to trace a displacement of
lithosphere plate under a hot spot within the Paleo-
Asian ocean structures. We must recognize that the

mantle substructure is revealed close to terrestrial
surface within the Mongolian astropipe
geostructures. True, the proposed model of impact
diamond-generation composition, although
approximating rather closely to reality, calls in
many respects for refinements according to isotope
geochemical and mineralogical data, also
geophysical log. The pursuance of fundamental
investigations of discovered astropipe geostructures
with the complex mastering of information on
mantle inclusions, mineralogical, structural
petrography, geochemistry and petrochemistry is
quite possible.
Figure 1 Location of the Mongolian
diamond-bearing astropipe geostructures [1]
Type I, studied in 1997–2017: 1, Agit Khangay
(47° 38' N; 96° 05' E); 2, Khuree Mandal (46° 28'
N; 98° 25' E); 3, Bayan Khuree (44° 06' N; 109° 36'
E); 4, Tsenkher. (43° 36' N; 98° 21' E)
Type II, insufficiently studied gold and diamond-
bearing geostructure: 5, possible astropipe
geostructure “Flying Saucer” (49° 25' N; 92° 05' E)
II. MAIN REAL RESULTS
According to D.Dorjnamjaa et al. [1]-[4],
[12]-[15] the Agit Khangay and Khuree Mandal
gold and diamond-bearing ring impact astropipe
geostructures are established for the first time in
Mongolia. These astropipes are wonderfully
preserved from erosion and active denudation, and
characterized by both well natural exposures and
diversity of different impact-derived and shocked
magmatic rocks and minerals.
1.The Agit Khangay astropipe geostructure
The Agit Khangay astropipe geostructure
in western Mongolia was revealed at the northern
edge of the Zavkhan tectonic zone, some 60 km
southwest of Uliastay city (Figures 1, 2a, 2b). The
crater is surrounded by a raised rim with a total
diameter of about 10 km. The host rock of the crater
is an Upper Paleozoic magmatic assemblage
overlain in places by Quaternary alluvial deposits.
The crater rim consists of a disrupted ring-like ridge
reaching a height of about 450–500 m, and the
crater itself filled up with shattered and shocked
granite (agizite-new name from this geostructure),
which is characterized by ejecta, cataclasite, and
authigenic breccia, as the impact melt. Agizite is
new Mongolian word of gold and diamond-bearing
rock which was multiple published characteristic for
Agit Khangay astropipe geostructure [1]. Agizite is
atypical (unorthodox) suevite-like metasomatic rock
and shock breccia which contains microdiamond,
moissanite, pyrope, stishovite, coesite, kamacite,
tektite and etc. Term “suevite” was established for
the first time by E. M. Shoemaker and E. T. C. Chao
in German Meteorite crater Ries in 1961 [7].
Figure 2a. Geological map of the Agit Khangay
astropipe geostructure
Figure 2b. Cross-section of the Agit Khangay
geostructure lengthways line II-I
Figures 2a and 2b. 1- Quaternary: coarse-
fragmental alluvial and proluvial loose rocks
(conglomerate, gritstone, channel gem sands, gold-
bearing sands); 2- Mesozoic: central crater
depression filling up with coarse clastic (boulder,
shingle, gravel, explosion breccia ) and variegated
impact ejecta and suevite-like rocks (agizite) with
minerals produced under high pressures and
temperatures (see Figure 2b, 2-4); 3- Mesozoic
minor gabbroid intrusion: sulfide-bearing iron
occurrence (Goat valley); 4- Permian
porphyroclastic potassic rosy granite; 5- Gold-
bearing mattress-like alkaline granite, syenite-aplite
and syenite-pegmatite with skialith (see Figure 2b,
6); 6- Meteorite impactite eruptive or explosive
reject within central crater depression; 7-Gold-
bearing porphyritic whin dike; 8-Gold-bearing aplite
and noble quartz vein; 9- Cusps or sharp boundary

between an inner central crater depression and
central uplift (see Figure 2b, 7); 10 - Cusps between
a central uplift and outer ring depression; 11- Porch-
like mountain wavy slope ( sculptured relief)
composed of diluvial, diluvial-proluvial and
colluvial loose sediments with gold, diamond,
moissanite, garnet, coesite, tektites (khangaites),
black magnetic balls, scheelite, platinum, etc.; 12-
Prospecting trench (Tr) and pit or shaft (Sh);13-
Diamond-bearing suevite-like (agizite) or fluidizate-
like fine - clastic, shock and pyroclastic breccia (see
Figure 2b, 5); 14- Periclinal mattress-like jointing,
line foliation, horizontal foliated fracture within ring
ironshot granitoid intrusion; 15-17-Gold and
diamond-bearing locality with various precious,
noble, rare metal, minerals and elements:15-
Diamond Cairn (gold, diamond, moissanite,
khamrabaevite, pyrope, chrysoberyl, emerald,
ilmenite, chrom spinel, kamacite, tektites, scheelite,
graphite-2H, etc.), 16- Piebald Goat (gold,
moissanite, pyrope, fayalite, scheelite, black
magnetic balls or iron meteorite, tektites, coesite,
kamacite, stishovite, etc.), 17- Middle Nose (gold,
platinum, rhodium, rhenium, REE (La, Ce, Eu),
chrome-diopside, titanomagnetite, galenite,
scheelite, black magnetic balls, etc.); 18- Arcuate
and distributed fault, cognate fissures and vertical
fissuring; 19- Cross-section lengthways II-I
Most panned samples and hand specimens
contain fine diamonds with octahedral habit (size of
0.2–0.43 to 0,5 mm with a weight of 6.0–6.4 mg or
0.034–0.1 carat); gold (from 0.1 to 3–5 g/t );
platinum; moissanite (mineral of meteorite-siliceous
carbon size of 0.6 mm (Figure 3); pyrope; rhenium;
chrome spinel; kamacite; khangaites (tektites, 1.0–
3.0 mm in size); picroilmenite; stishovite; coesite;
khamrabaevite (mineral of meteorite-titanic carbon);
fayalite; scheelite; graphite-2H, etc. Impact shock
effects include the presence of coesite and
pseudotachylite in samples of granites and abundant
vesicular and flow-structured quartz glass. Our work
on acid-dissolved residues of impact melt rocks
from the crater and panning has revealed the
presence of silicon carbide (moissanite) crystals,
closely associated with impact microdiamonds.
Exceptional interest is the larger number of
magnetic spherules (meteoritic dust or rain)
gathered in the region. These black magnetic balls
are characterized by high content of Ti, Fe, Co, Ni,
Cu, Mn, Mg, Cd, Ca, Cl, Al, Si, K, Au and
represented by oxides of iron (Figure 4; from 0.05–
0.1 to 1.0–5.0 mm). The spherules differ noticeably
from micrometeorites and because of their contents
of iridium, rhenium, tektites, and khamrabaevite.
Tektites are found only in certain, rather limited
areas of the Earth‟s surface. They are named
according to the area in which they are found and
the principal types are: australites, from the southern
part of Australia, Tasmania and coastal islands;
philippinites from the Philippine Islands and
southern China; javaites from Java; malaysianites
from Malaysia; indochinites from Thailand and
Indochina; Ivory Coast tektites from the Ivory
Coast, West Africa; bediasites from Texas, United
States; Georgia tektites from Georgia, United States;
and moldavites from western Czechoslovakia.
According to D. Dorjnamjaa and D. Soyolmaa [6]
Mongolian tektites has been named as khangaites.
They may alien planetary materials, possibly cosmic
relics of the impacting Agit Khangay „body‟. Using
morphostructural, geochemical, as well as by
mineral concentration methods, we have been able
to identify the unique occurrence of gold associated
with diamonds in the Agit Khangay crater. Primary
occurrences of gold with contents 0.1 to 3-5 g/t are
confined to the Central crater up to 2–2.5 km in a
plane.
Figure 3 Trihedral moissanite crystal (SiC) from
agizite of the Agit Khangay astropipe
geostructure [5]
Figure 4 Black magnetic balls or meteoritic (iron)
dust (size of 0.1 to 5.0 mm) from the
Agit Khangay astropipe geostructure
An analogous gold and diamond-bearing
impact crater, „Khuree Mandal‟ has also been
discovered in central Mongolia.
2. The Khuree Mandal astropipe geostructure
The Khuree Mandal astropipe geostructure
(Figures 1, 5), 220 km N-NW of Bayankhongor city
in central Mongolia is within the Upper Paleozoic
volcanic intermontane Buutsagaan depression with a

diameter of 11 km and has a similar
geomorphological position as the Agit Khangay
astropipe crater (Figures 2a, 2b). This geostructure
is a beautifully-circular depression in the hilly and
partly filled by the Cenozoic loose rocks. As shown
in Figure 5, the principal morphostructural elements
of the astropipe ring are [1]: Inner diamond and
gold-bearing pediment plain (I); Inner ring-shaped
uplift or Inner tectonomagmatic bar (Central uplift-
II); Central ring depression (III); Outward circular
bar (IV); Intramontane ore-bearing superimposed
trough (V). The Khuree Mandal astropipe
geostructure within the upper Paleozoic volcanic
depression (Central Mongolia) in diameter 11 km
and rim consists of a dissected ring of hills, reaching
a height of about 400-450 m above the
superimposed basin level. The suevite-like rocks or
fluidizate (Figure 6) and volcanic breccia from
various parts of the crater and central uplift are
characterized by the presence of olivine, coesite,
moissanite, khondrite, picroilmenite, pyrope,
phlogopite, orthite, and gold (from 0,13 to 6,33-32
g/t) closely associated with mantle and impact-
derived fine diamonds (Figure 7; 0.1–0.5 to 2.5 mm
in size). Special pressure and temperature conditions
are necessary to account for the coexistence of
phlogopite, pyrope, picroilmenite, gold and other
accompanying accessory minerals with the
diamonds. Rocks and minerals from the crater show
evidence of shock effects, ranging from planar
features in quartz grains to the presence of stishovite
(Figure 8) and coesite. The Khuree Mandal
astropipe geostructure is analogous to the diamond-
bearing lamproites of the „Argail‟ pipe of Australia
[8]-[10]. So-called shatter cones that were produced
when the shock wave traversed the Permian
volcanogenic rocks were first described by us in
connection with the Khuree Mandal (Figure 9) and
Tsenkher astropipe structures [1], [16]. I should be
emphasized that shatter cones are known from many
meteorite craters on the Earth as being typical of
impact craters [5]-[7]. It is very characteristic that
within central uplift palingenetic granitic rocks
including an abundance of the acute angled
xenoliths (Figure 10) are common. In connection
with this phenomenon and other an accomplished
fact the author is introduced the concept of
meteorite impact and nuclear magmatic dissolved
solids. It is possible to assume that the cosmic body
intrudes into the Khuree Mandal basement.
Pressures up to 10 mills. Bar (1012
Pa) and
temperatures up to 30 0000
C prevail on the contact
surface. Consequently, the shock wave passes
through the surface of the crater and is reflected
back through the meteorite, thus meteorite and
melted impactite are vaporized like in an explosion.
Figure 5 Sketch geological map and cross-section
of the Khuree Mandal astropipe geostructure [1]
1-Cenozoic: coarse-fragmental loose rocks
composing terraces (conglomerate, gritstone with
diamonds, tektites, cosmic spherules); 2-Diluvial
and diluvial-proluvial deposits with gold,
moissanite; 3-Allogenic lava breccia boulder,
gravel, sandstone, loamy sand with gold
mineralization, meteoric matter; 4-Mesozoic:
erosion remnants of the mural palingenetic granite
with fluidizate-like loamy sand volcanic breccia and
plural acute angle xenoliths; 5-Carboniferous
(Buutsagaan Formation)–Permian (Khureemaral
Formation): terrestrial terrigenous-volcanic rocks; 6-
Mesozoic intrusive contact with diamond and gold-
bearing coarse-fragmental rocks; 7-Radiating gold-
bearing basic dikes and lithic-crystal tuffite; 8-
Pseudoslate cover, neck, veins, authigenic breccia,
tagamite-like complex forming radiating and ring
structure; 9- Cusps between a central uplift and ring
depression; 10-Cusps between an inner (small)
diamond and gold-bearing pediment plain (I) and
central uplift (II); 11-Arcuate fault and Ring fracture
inside of the central uplift; 12-Suevite or fluidizate-
like granitic breccia; 13-Prospecting trench (Tr) and
pit or shaft (sh;ш).

Figure 6 Polygenetic shock suevite or fluidizate-like Figure 7 Diamond octahedra from the
impact breccia - conglomerate including tektites and Khuree Mandal astropipe geostructure.
kimberlite-like diamonds from the Khuree Mandal The size of crystals is 0.1–5.0 mm.
astropipe geostructure
Figure 8 Reticulate structure of stishovite, sharp-edged fragment (а) and a small
magnification (б) of one in (а) from the Khuree Mandal astropipe geostructure
Figure 9 Shatter cones (size approx. 2.0 m) Figure 10 The acute angled xenolith-like (nest) melted
in the Khureemaral basaltic lava flow in the impactite resulting from meteorite impact and
Khuree Mandal astropipe geostructure nuclear magmatic dissolution (palingenesis)
GPS: 46˚31′50″N; 98˚20′04″E
III. Conclusions
1.Summing up what we have said it allows
to approve a possible origin of closely associated
with the hypervelocity meteorite impact of surface
of the earth‟s crust. As impact melt the various
rocks (agizite, fluidizate, impact breccia, etc.) of the
astropipes by level of diamond in the Agit Khangay
and Khuree Mandal astropipes which concentration
of a hydrocarbon gas, especially of the adsorbed
form (HCGaf) are close to kimberlite. Consequently,
detailed geological and gas-geochemical
investigations show diamond genesis is the
expression of the collision of the lithospheric mantle
with meteor impact collapse explosion process. The

main cause and essence of the peculiar sparse
phenomenon is mantle-crust mix and fluidization of
the combined nucleosynthesis- magmatic evolution-
palingenesis interaction.
2. To all this must be added that we have
the top-priority scientific objectives in relation to
unique gold and diamond-bearing astropipes except
an economic potential. It is chronological dating of
the percussive episode of meteorite cratering within
the Mongolian area.
IV. Acknowledgements
This research was supported by science-
technological project of Mongolia “Mongol
Diamond” in 2004-2006, by additional scientific
support from the Moscow State University (MSU)
and the CNIGRI ALROSA Co.Ltd. We are grateful
to Academician D. M. Voinkov (former
VNIIGeosystem, Moscow) for the adsorbed form
gas‟s analyses in impactites, V. K. Garanin
(Problem laboratory of diamond deposits,
Geological department of MSU) and Dr. N. N.
Zinchuk (CNIGRI, ALROSA), Elena L. Zhegallo
(Paleontological Institute, RAS) for their scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) studies of the diamond
microcrystals and tektite. We are also thankful to
Academician R. Barsbold and Dr. Kh. Tsogtbaatar
(Director of Institute of Paleontology and Geology,
MAS) for their constructive assistance cordially and
sincerely.
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Toward A New Scientific Discovery of the Unique Gold and Diamond-Bearing Agit Khangay and Khuree Mandal Astropipes of Mongolia

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