Modern Mining June 2018

DIAMONDS

values in each pipe to decide pri- orities for drilling. All BOD’s South African proj- ects derive from an option and earn-in agreement it announced in February last year with Vutomi Mining and Razorbill Properties 12 (collectively known as Vutomi). Interestingly, a size- able chunk of Vutomi (30 %) is owned by Campbell and his long- time colleague John Shelton, who worked with him at both De Beers and Rockwell Diamonds. “Our main reason for investing on a personal basis in Vutomi was to persuade the BOD board that it had top class exploration prop- erties,” Campbell notes. “Putting our own money into the venture was a way of demonstrating our confidence in the assets.” In Botswana, the original focus

for BOD, the company remains very active. It has two joint ventures (JVs) in the country. One – Sunland Minerals – is a 50/50 JV with Alrosa of Russia, only rivalled worldwide as a dia- mond player by De Beers. The other – Maibwe – is a JV between BCL (51 %), Future Minerals (20 %) and Siseko (29 %), with BOD’s interest deriving from its 51 % stake in Siseko. The Sunland JV is mainly targeting the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR), already home to one diamond mine, Ghaghoo, which is currently on care and maintenance, and also Petra’s KX-36 discovery. It also holds several licences in the Orapa Kimberlite Field. “The current field programme for H1 2018 – which is being supervised by BOD – has seen us fol- lowing up on a number of previously identified priority geophysical targets in the CKGR using ground magnetics and soil sampling. The objective is to turn the geophysical targets into drill targets and we have a drilling programme planned for H2,” says Campbell. The Maibwe JV is also focused on the CKGR and has 10 licences in the south west of the game reserve. Kimberlites in the project area have delivered what Campbell calls “some of the most enticing microdiamond results I’ve ever seen.” Progress, however, has been held up by the fact that BCL – best known for own- ing the Selebi-Phikwe nickel/copper mine – is in liquidation and unable to finance an agreed work programme. “We would like to buy BCL’s share of the JV and we’ve already held talks with the liquida- tor,” states Campbell. “We believe strongly in

records housed in archives in Bloemfontein and Kimberley and the Africana Museum in Johannesburg,” recounts Campbell. “Using the identified anomalies as a base, research indi- cated that a number of small diamond mines or workings existed in the area for some time prior to 1880. They were closed due to an eco- nomic recession at the time and most of the records disappeared during the Anglo-Boer War. However, there was enough information available to set us on the right track and we were able to re-discover the kimberlites that underpinned the historic mining.” BOD has now completed detailed ground geophysical work which has revealed that the kimberlites range from 0,3 to 1,15 ha in size, the biggest being Vlakfontein. The company is currently assessing the diamond indicator

The small processing plant used to process samples from the Maibwe joint venture.

Diamonds recovered from the bulk sampling at Thorny River.

24  MODERN MINING  June 2018