Diamond-miner African Diamonds has prepared a study on the AK6 diamond resource, in Botswana, which offers an early-production, low-capital-expenditure option, says African Diamonds chairperson John Teeling.
The company, which owns 29% of the AK6 mine, is working with diamond-miner De Beers, which has a 71% share in the resource, to refine the study. Teeling says that a definitive decision will be taken in early June, and that the new plan is financeable, with the development of the mine proposed at $50-million initially, followed by $35-million to yield 800 000 ct/y.
De Beers struggled to raise the funds to develop the AK6 as a $320-million mine.
“Should De Beers decline to proceed, then African Diamonds will offer to take 100% control to develshift incharge pulp mill jobs in dubaiop the mine,” says Teeling.
The AK6 resource was discovered in 1970 and was revisited in 2004. It is expected to come on stream in early 2011. The discovery is located close to the Orapa, Letlhakane and Damatshaa mines and has good local infrastructure.
The mine is expected to have high-quality diamonds and low operating costs. African Diamonds says that it is the only significant commercial diamond discovery in recent times.
The mining licence fcrusher for extracting gold from pcbor the AK6 was granted in October 2008 for 15 years and production is due to begin in April 2010, but an earlier production model is also being explored.
African Diamonds views the AK6 mine as important, as commercial kimberlite discoveries are rare, with 6 000 discovered kimberlites, of which only 50 have been economic and only 17 hard-rock diamond mines currently operate globally, and this number is expected to drop to 12 by 2012. A significant diamond supply deficit is expsop in ironore processing plantsected by 2011, despite the current economic crisis.
The mine has a resource to 372 m, which includes 8,9-million carats and 40-million tons of diamonds. The average grade is 22 carats per hundred ton (cpht) and the modelled diamond value is $137/ct. Significant quantities of rare, high-value, type-two diamonds exist in the mine.
Additional kimberlites exist below 372 m. African Diamonds expects that the grade will be in excess of 25 cpht and the diamond value to be $160/ct.
Diamonds from the mine will be sold to the rough diamond distribution arm of De Beers, the Diamond Trading Company Botswana. There is no government equity in the project and it is expected that it will begin working for profit in April 2011.
Additional Prospects
African Diamonds is also exploring other highly prospective diamond grounds in Botswana and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The AK8 kimberlite discovery is fully owned by African Diamonds and is situatportable crusher million tonsed 10 km from the AK6 and 10 km from Orapa mine. It also has excellent local infrastructure and consists of a 5-ha kimberlite pipe. Development opportunities are being explored and it may become a potential small mine or feeder to the AK6.
African Diamonds also owns 100% of the AK9 kimberlite discovery, which is also situated 10 km away from the AK6 and 20 km away from Orapa, and also has the potential to be a small mine or feeder to the AK6. It contains insufficient carats for a fair diamond valuation.
In the DRC, African Diamonds owns 35,42% of private Belgian diamond exploration company Bugeco SA, which has wholly owned prime exploration ground in the DRC containing newly discovered kimberlites. Bugeco’s DRC subsidiary owns exploration licences in that country and a comprehensive database, arising from a joint venture with De Beers.
Bugeco is focused on five licences in which the kimberlites are located in Kasai-Oriental province. Two high-interest kimberlite clusters have been discovered with a total of nine kimberlite pipes of good mineral chemistry with microdiamonds and macrodiamonds. African Diamonds says that it will focus next on bulk sampling for macrodiamonds.