Modern Mining August 2016

DIAMONDS

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.

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

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

42  MODERN MINING  August 2016