Modern Mining May 2015

EVENTS

Resource Sector Conference

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.

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 %

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