Modern Mining June 2019

MINING News

Botswana Diamonds (BOD) has announced that Vutomi (in which it has a 40 % interest) has received permission to sell diamonds recovered during bulk sampling at its Thorny River project, located to the east of Mokopane in Limpopo Province. The sale of diamonds from bulk sampling will enable funding of further development by Vutomi. Trenching by Botswana Diamonds has identified a ‘hotspot’ at Thorny River with a thick kimberlite intersection of 4 m wide, suggesting a ‘kimberlite blow’. Some 256 carats of rough diamonds have already been recovered (to 10 June) from the re- commissioning of the processing plant. The bulk sampling programme will generate short-term cash flow, whilst building the mineral resource. SouthernEra Diamonds, has included its coarse tailings dumps gen- erated from the mining of the Marsfontein Thorny River bulk sampling delivers diamonds and Klipspringer diamond mines in the same revenue-sharing agreement. The Thorny River bulk sampling project is a joint venture between SouthernEra, providing the processing (40 %), Palaeo (40 %), the mining contractor, and Vutomi (20 %), providing the ground. BOD has also announced that Vutomi’s application for a Section 27 Mining Permit over a portion of the Marsfontein farm has been accepted by the authori- ties. Marsfontein is contiguous to, and an extension of, the Thorny River project. This portion of the farm is host to the rich M8 kimberlite dyke, bordering the Marsfontein diamond mine, in-situ gravels and dumps. Marsfontein was mined between 1998 and 2000 by a De Beers/SouthernEra joint venture with its production over its short life being a phenomenal 1,9 million carats.

Diamonds recovered at Thorny River from the re-commissioning of the processing plant (photo: Botswana Diamonds). The payback time on the capital invested in the operation was a mere three-and- half days. 

Trenching activity at Thorny River (photo: Botswana Diamonds).

June 2019  MODERN MINING  13