Modern Mining October 2016

DIAMONDS

Brown said the successful fund raising was in large part attributable to the high quality of the DFS, completed by DRA in 2012 and later revised. “In addition, we had put together a well thought out plan for project implementa- tion over a two-year period which was realistic and attainable and which impressed the mar- ket,” he said. In the event, the originally envisaged two- year construction period has slipped slightly. As Brown told journalists at the recent media briefing, much higher than normal rainfall over the 2014/15 rainy season together with an unan- ticipated increase in the quantity of overburden to be removed from the primary crusher and plant terraces led to the civils programme being extended by six months, a decision announced last year. Firestone has, however, managed to bring the revised schedule – with an anticipated comple- tion date of 22 December – forward by several weeks, with first production imminent as this article was being written. According to Brown, the completion of the first sale of diamonds is expected in early February 2017. “We’ll be ramping up aggressively to our full production rate over a six-month period and our current production guidance for the financial year end- ing June 2017 is for between 1,8 and 2 Mt of ore to be treated to produce between 380 000 and 450 000 carats,” he said. He added that there was already a 50 000 tonne stockpile of historic mixed ore next to the primary crusher and that

Left: A very recent view of the Liqhobong site with the treatment plant at an advanced stage. Below: A 'forest' of cranes working on the treatment plant in August this year.

kimberlite project in a notoriously remote loca- tion – he had secured the funding for the new mine and in early 2014 Firestone was able to announce a funding package of US$140 million and a project debt facility of US$82,4 million. In a previous interview with Modern Mining ,

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