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May 2015
MODERN MINING
43
EVENTS
Resource Sector Conference
200 000 and 220 000 carats a year and is still
ramping up.
As at 31 December 2014 (Gem Diamonds’
most recent reporting period as this article was
being written), some 40 000 tonnes of ore had
been treated at Ghaghoo with 10 167 carats
recovered, including a 20-carat white diamond,
a 17-carat white diamond and a 3-carat orange
diamond (the recovery of which confirms the
presence of valuable coloured diamonds in
the orebody). The mine is expected to reach
a production rate of 60 000 tonnes a month by
mid-2015.
With Ghaghoo now commissioned and
the Karowe upgrade all but complete, there
is very little new going on in Botswana’s dia-
mond mining industry – at least in terms of
new projects although Jwaneng is still busy
with its Cut-8 project, with more than 50 %
of the waste-stripping required having now
been completed. A small upcoming project is
the relaunch of the Lerala diamond mine near
Martin’s Drift. The new owner of the mine,
ASX-listed Kimberley Diamonds Ltd (KDL),
intends restarting mining at the site once
sufficient funds are raised to undertake modifi-
cations to the plant to enable it to treat 200 t/h.
In the meantime, KDL has undertaken a tender
process for the open-pit mining contract and
reported at the end of April that the bids it had
received were in the process of being assessed.
Diamond exploration will be the subject of at
least three presentations with Petra Diamonds,
Pangolin Diamonds and Botswana Diamonds all
reporting on their projects in Botswana. Petra’s
current focus is the evaluation of its KX36 kim-
berlite discovery in the Central Kalahari and
an intensified search for other kimberlites in
the surrounding area. For its part, Pangolin
has several exploration projects in Botswana
but seems to be devoting most of its energies at
the moment to its Malatswae diamond project
located 90 km south-east of the Orapa diamond
mine. Like Pangolin, Botswana Diamonds is
also working – in conjunction with joint ven-
ture partner, Alrosa of Russia – in the Orapa
Kimberlite Field. It will be represented at the
conference by its chairman, well-known dia-
mond mining personality John Teeling.
The only presentation on copper sched-
uled for the conference will be by Khoemacau
Copper Mining’s Johannes Tsimako, a regu-
lar at the event, who will be speaking on the
subject of Khoemacau’s planned new cop-
per mine on the ‘Kalahari Copperbelt’ of
north-west Botswana. A subsidiary of Cupric
Canyon Capital of Scottsdale, Arizona in the
US, Khoemacau intends developing an under-
ground mine able to produce up to 50 000 t/a
Ghaghoo is
expected to reach
a production rate
of 60 000 tonnes
a month by
mid-2015.