Modern Mining November 2018

MINING News

refurbishment to enable production at a rate of 2 000 tonnes per day (t/d) for the first operating year. This is expected to take roughly 18 months, with the first gold pour expected at the end of 2019. The second phase includes refur- bishment of the underground materials handling system, shafts and ventilation; and construction of the primary crusher, the SAG/ball circuit, carbon regeneration, a new gold room and tailings storage facility. This is expected to take a further 12 months and enable the operation to climb to 4 000 t/d. The operation is then expected to ramp up to 5 000 t/d, over the following three years. Mine production for the first 10 years will be focused on the upper orebod- ies and is expected to average 350 000 to 450 000 oz at an average head grade of 8,1 g/t. In the second 10 years, pro- duction averages 400 000 to 450 000 oz. Total cash costs are expected to average between US$590/oz and US$680/oz, while All-in Sustaining Costs are expected to be between US$750/oz and US$850/oz. 

Mothae diamond plant now commissioning Lucapa Diamond Company, listed on the ASX, and the Government of the Kingdom of Lesotho (GoL) recently announced that commissioning of the 1,1 Mt/a treatment plant has commenced at the Mothae kim- berlite diamond mine in Lesotho (Lucapa 70 %; GoL 30 %).

greater than 10,8 carats) of up to 89 carats. The recovery of these large diamonds from the bulk sampling programme con- ducted by Lucapa at Mothae is consistent with the recoveries made during trial min- ing operations conducted between 2008 and 2012. Approximately 23 400 carats of dia- monds were recovered during the trial mining phase, including Specials of up to 254 carats (boart) and 96 individual stones weighing more than 10 carats. Certain of these trial mining diamonds achieved sale prices of up to US$57 000 per carat. In another development, Lucapa and GoL recently announced the receipt of an approved Term Sheet from the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Limited (IDC) for a R100 million develop- ment facility for the Mothae mine. The financing agreement with IDC fol- lowed an extensive period of due diligence and site visits where the legal, technical and financial modelling of the two-phase devel- opment of Mothae mine was reviewed. 

Production from the Mothae treatment plant, which incorporates two XRT dia- mond recovery circuits, will be ramped up to its nameplate capacity throughout the December quarter. The commencement of production from the new plant will see bulk sampling opera- tions concluded at Mothae, with the staff now transitioning to the commercial dia- mond plant. More than 4 100 carats of diamonds have been recovered from the bulk sam- pling of areas within the Mothae kimberlite pipe which had not previously been tested (and thus not included in the Mothae JORC resource), or had been inadequately tested during the previous trial mining phase. These included Specials (large diamonds of

November 2018  MODERN MINING  17