Botswana Diamonds-led consortium awarded prospecting licence in Eswatini
A consortium called Diamonds of Eswatini, in which London- and Botswana-listed Botswana Diamonds holds a 30% interest, has been awarded a prospecting licence over the diamondiferous Dokowayo kimberlites, in Eswatini.
Botswana Diamonds, which holds a 30% interest in the consortium, is the operator.
Michelo Shakantu holds a 15% stake; the Conros Corporation – owned by the Chandaria family – holds a 5% interest; the Eswatini government 25%; and King Mswati III 25%.
The awarded prospecting licence of just under 4 000 ha is for an initial period of one year and renewable for a further year.
There are at least two kimberlite pipes and three kimberlite dykes on the prospecting licence, the largest of which (K1) is a pipe of about 600 m in diameter.
K1 was mined by Transhex between 1986 and 1996 when 720 222 ct were recovered. The mine was well known for producing fancy pink and Type IIA diamonds and the largest diamond recovered weighed 146 ct.
There are also significant tailings dumps on the property, as well as a stockpile of unprocessed kimberlite. The kimberlite resource has been internally estimated at over ten-million tonnes to a depth of 200 m and the dumps are estimated to contain two-million tonnes.
Botswana Diamonds says the consortium plans to undertake an immediate, updated full desktop review and analysis of secondary sources. That will be followed by bulk sampling of the dumps and kimberlite stockpile.
"We are delighted to have been awarded this prospecting licence over the Dokowayo kimberlite pipe in Eswatini, which we applied for several years ago.
"The pipe was last mined a long time ago and following breakthroughs in both exploration and mining technology, we are excited about Dokowayo's potential viability, especially seeing that Dokowayo is proven to contain both pink and Type IIA diamonds, which are greatly in demand and fetch amongst the very highest of diamond prices," comments Botswana Diamonds chairperson John Teeling.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation