MM July 2015 Final revise

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July 2015MODERN MINING35
COUNTRY FOCUS –
BOTSWANA
ture
Botswana’s first underground diamond mine.
In respect of the Orapa tenements, Teeling
said that Botswana Diamonds had provided
its extensive Orapa database to Alrosa, which
had analysed the data and produced a series
of targets.
The Orapa licences include PL 206, where
kimberlite indicator materials (KIMs) have
been found in nearly all the samples thus far
collected, PL 207, where two diamonds were
found in the 2014 sampling, and PL 210, where
exploration work has identified a clear anom-
aly and where drilling will be undertaken later
this year. All told, the joint venture has a US$1
million (for 2015) exploration programme
underway on the Orapa blocks.
According to Teeling, one of the benefits
imparted by Alrosa’s technology is a fast turn-
around on analysis of soil samples. “They use
mobile mineral analysis labs on site and com-
pare the results of sampling against known
‘footprints’ – there are no delays and the result
is that exploration is speeded up dramatically,”
he said.
On a lighter note, Teeling mentioned the
AK6 kimberlite, the resource being exploited
by the new Karowe mine in the Orapa area,
and said he had almost got “sick” listening to
the Lucara presentation which detailed the new
mine’s exceptional production of large stones.
This was a reference to the fact that African
Diamonds, a predecessor company to Botswana
Diamonds, at one stage had an interest in the
AK6 project in which it was partnered with
De Beers. Teeling headed African Diamonds as
Executive Chairman.
Teeling said that African Diamonds and De
Beers had discovered the AK6 pipe in 2004.
To the best of Modern Mining’s knowledge, the
kimberlite was in fact found circa 1970 by De
Beers, which considered it at the time to be
sub-economic. Teeling can, however, can take
much of the credit for the fact that AK6 now
supports a diamond mine. De Beers favoured
delaying mine development but Teeling would
have none of it. He was instrumental in Lucara
buying De Beer’s share in the project and, as
the saying goes, the rest is history, with Karowe
now ranking as one of the most successful new
diamond mining developments in recent years
anywhere in the world (as our article on page
28 of this issue makes clear).
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