Modern Mining October 2016

DIAMONDS

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MODERN MINING

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October 2016

rown told the media group that

the site had worked well over

3 million LTI free hours since

the start of construction in July

2014. “We regard this as a phe-

nomenal achievement, given the fact that we

had around 1 000 workers and up to 14 cranes

deployed at peak on a very busy site with re-

stricted access,” he said. He added that the

logistics of the project had also been formi-

dable, with around 2 000 truck loads being

required to transport all the equipment to the

site in the Maluti Mountains of Lesotho.

A 20-year veteran of De Beers (he rose to

the position of Group CFO and also served as

joint Acting CEO during his last year with the

Group), Brown was appointed CEO of Firestone

in late 2013, charged with bringing into suc-

cessful production a project which had defeated

its previous owners, European Diamonds and

Kopane. Within weeks of being appointed – and

despite scepticism in the market as to whether

a cash-strapped junior with a then market cap

of around US$35 million could build a major

Liqhobong

speeds to completion

Defying the sceptics, Firestone Diamonds, listed on London’s AIM, is

currently in the process of bringing on stream Southern Africa’s newest

kimberlite mine – Liqhobong in Lesotho. The new US$224 million

open-pit mine is projected to produce around 1 million carats a year

and will give a huge boost to the Mountain Kingdom’s economy,

pushing up GDP by around 5 %. Remarkably, the project – which

is running well ahead of its revised schedule – has been built

with an absolutely flawless safety record, as Firestone’s CEO,

Stuart Brown (right), recently related at a media briefing in

Johannesburg in early October.