Modern Mining September 2016

MINING News

BlueRock acquires option to purchase diamond plant BlueRock Diamonds has acquired an option from Diacar to purchase Diacar’s processing plant located at BlueRock’s Kareevlei mine in the Northern Cape. Diacar has been operating the Diacar plant at Kareevlei since November 2015 under a sub-contracting agreement for which it was paid 40 % of the diamond revenues generated from the plant. In July this year, BlueRock announced the termination of the agreements with Diacar for loading and hauling services and for diamond processing. BlueRock has now reached an agreement with Diacar whereby Diacar has granted BlueRock an option to buy its processing plant for R1, 6 million at any time up to 31 December 2016. The technical capacity of the Diacar plant is similar to BlueRock’s existing plant and the option provides extra capacity during the option period and will enable BlueRock, at minimal cost, to further assess its options for providing a permanent increase in capacity. The Kareevlei property is located approximately 100 km north- west of Kimberley and hosts the Kareevlei kimberlites – five kimberlite pipes ranging in size from less than a 0,5 ha to less than 5,6 ha. They were discovered in 1991 by De Beers. 

BlueRock’s Kareevlei mine in the Northern Cape (photo: BlueRock).

Civils contractor appointed for Yanfolila gold project AIM-listed Hummingbird Resources has appointed IMAGRI-SARL as civil works contractor for its 2,2 Moz Yanfolila gold project in Mali. IMAGRI will be responsible for the completion of plant civil works, including those for the ROM tip and primary crusher, the secondary crusher and screen and the milling and Carbon in Leach (CIL) area. Work is targeted to commence at the start of October 2016 “Development at Yanfolila continues on schedule and budget, as we target initial production of 130 000 oz gold from the first full year of production. The appointment of the civil contractor and mobilisation of equipment is a pivotal undertaking in the project’s evolution into a producing mine. IMAGRI’s local experience, which includes working for Randgold in Mali, will be invaluable as we advance Yanfolila,” com- ments Dan Betts, CEO of Hummingbird Resources. 

September 2016  MODERN MINING  15