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June 2016
MODERN MINING
11
MINING News
ASX-listed Kimberley Diamonds Ltd (KDL)
says that the first sale of diamonds recov-
ered from its newly operating Lerala
diamond mine in Botswana will be held
by online auction from Antwerp, Belgium,
towards the end of this month (June).
KDL reported in April that its mining
contractor, Basil Read Mining Botswana,
had started open-pit mining operations
at Lerala and announced in May that
ore production had commenced, which
it described as the culmination of a
nine-month project to upgrade and com-
mission the mine.
The deposit at Lerala comprises a clus-
ter of five diamond-bearing kimberlites
– designated K2 to K6 – which were origi-
nally discovered by De Beers in the early
1990s. Although De Beers undertook trial
mining, it was left to Australian company
DiamonEx to develop a mine at the site,
with commissioning taking place in 2008.
The global financial crisis led to the mine
being placed on care and maintenance
within months of its opening.
A third company, Mantle Diamonds,
operated the mine for a few months in
2012 producing approximately 73 000
carats. A range of technical issues in the
processing plant, however, resulted in
poor recovery and led to the mine once
again being put on care and maintenance.
KDL acquired the project – which has
a 20,1 Mt resource at an average grade of
24,2 cpht – in early 2014 and has upgraded
the plant to reliably treat and recover dia-
monds at a nominal rate of 200 t/h. Some
1,4 Mt/a of ore will be processed to pro-
duce an average of 336 000 carats annually.
The mine life is nine years.
First sale of Lerala diamonds imminent
First kimberlite ore being mined and hauled from the K3 pit at Lerala (photo: KDL).