Chairperson John Teeling
Botswana Diamonds, which holds exploration licences in South Africa and Botswana, has obtained a prospecting permit covering five kimberlites known to contain diamonds in the Marsfontein region of South Africa.
This permit covers 900.67 ha and surrounds the iconic Marsfontein diamond mine.
The licence includes kimberlite bodies M2, M3, M7, M8 and M9 and is adjacent to the company’s Thorny River properties, in the Limpopo province.
The primary target for the company is M3, which, according to historical records, has a strike length of 100 m and a true width of 10 m or more in some areas.
Bulk sampling by an earlier explorer has given grades of between 13.9 carats per hundred tonnes (cpht) and 137 cpht and the diamonds are reported to have good colour, quality and size distribution, the company avers.
M3 sits on higher ground and is not in a water course.
There has already been extensive benching, which will allow easy mining access to the body without significant expensive drilling and blasting, the company points out.
“Obtaining this permit is very good news – five kimberlites around the mined-out and hugely successful Marsfontein mine. We are particularly interested in the M3 kimberlite which has never been mined.
“Our work indicates that it is very prospective, and we believe it enhances our adjacent Thorny River properties – easy to mine with good potential grades and quality,” chairperson John Teeling says.
He notes that the diamond industry overall is currently in a depressed state, with a cyclical downturn in demand and a structural change owing to the growth of lab-grown diamonds.
“We believe demand will recover for mined diamonds and that lab-grown diamonds will take a certain percentage of the cheaper end of the jewellery market. M3 is almost ready to mine, and we will confirm what is there and be ready to mine when prices recover,” Teeling avers. 