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DIAMONDS
42
MODERN MINING
August 2016
T
he Kareevlei property is located
approximately 100 km north-
west of Kimberley and hosts the
Kareevlei kimberlites – five kim-
berlite pipes ranging in size from
less than a 0,5 ha to less than 5,6 ha. They
were discovered in 1991 by De Beers follow-
ing an extensive airborne magnetic survey of
the Ghaap Plateau. The property subsequently
passed into the hands of Tawana and was sold
to BlueRock in 2013. Since then BlueRock has
undertaking trial mining and is now transi-
tioning into full mining.
BlueRock, which was registered in 2012 and
admitted to AIM in 2013, has businessman
Adam Waugh as its CEO (he was appointed in
April this year) and Paul Beck – a member of
the well-known South African mining family –
as its Non-Executive Chairman. The CEO of its
South African operating subsidiary, Kareevlei
Mining, is Riaan Visser, a CA who has been
involved with diamond mining and tailings
retreatment projects in the Kimberley area for
over 20 years, while its Chief Technical Officer
is John Kilham, a geologist who spent 27 years
with De Beers.
In June this year BlueRock announced the
appointment of Johan Milho, previously with
Petra, as the newMine Manager of the Kareevlei
mine. He succeeds Willie van Wyk, the com-
pany’s BEE partner, who is now Director of
Mining Operations for Kareevlei Mining.
Outlining BlueRock’s progress at Kareevlei,
Beck says in his Chairman’s Statement in
BlueRock’s recently released results for the
year ended 31 December, 2015 that by the
end of the year the company had produced
in excess of 2 500 carats and installed facili-
ties capable of operating at in excess of 20 000
tonnes per month. He also noted that the aver-
age value per carat achieved was US$261,
significantly in excess of the original estimate
of US$183 per carat and the updated estimate
prepared by the company’s Competent Person
of US$232 per carat.
Mining operations over 2015 were focused
on developing and exploiting the KV2 pit,
which covers an area of 1,1 ha and has an
inferred grade of 4,6 cpht. By the end of 2015,
Kareevlei Mining had removed the overburden
from approximately 40 % of the pipe and had
reached a maximum mining depth of around
28 m in a small area of the orebody.
BlueRock announced in March this year that
it would be undertaking a strategic review of
its operations (including a review of the plant
Kareevlei
modifies its processing plant
BlueRock Diamonds, whose shares are quoted on London’s
AIM, reports that operations at its Kareevlei mine in the
Northern Cape, will be resuming shortly after operations
were suspended in June to allow changes to the plant con-
figuration. The company reported in July that the modifi-
cations to the processing facility were nearing completion
and should result in a recovery in grade as well as increased
capacity once operations restart.