Ghaghoo diamonds to auction before year-end

Keikantse Lesemela | Wednesday August 6, 2014 16:28

 

 

In a press statement released last week, Gem Diamonds chief executive, Clifford Elphick said the first diamonds produced during the commissioning of the plant are high quality and average size as compared to those mined during the exploration phase.

During the exploration phase, the largest diamond recovered was seven carats. However, the optimisation of the treatment plant processes is ongoing during the commissioning phase. The production build-up to 60,000 tonnes per month is still anticipated to be reached by December 2014.

“The first tender from Ghaghoo production is scheduled to take place before end of year. A 20 carat and two 10 carat diamonds have been recovered from the first 2,400 carats recovered as at end of June 2014. This compares to the largest diamond recovered in the exploration sampling of seven carats,” said Elphick.

Ghaghoo Mine, which is set to be officially opened by President Ian Khama next month, will become the country’s second operating diamond mine outside the Debswana stable.

Karowe is the only other operating independent diamond mine while two other, Lerala and Firestone’s BK11 are currently mothballed.

Although the Ghaghoo mine is in the desert, Elphick said during the development of the mine there has been a greater quantity of water encountered than indicated by the exploration drilling. “Steps have been taken to deal with this and it is not anticipated that there will be any impact on the planned production targets for 2014,” he said.

The first diamonds from Ghaghoo mine were initially scheduled to be recovered in 2013 at an initial rate of 100,000 carats per year, rising to a peak steady production of 780,000 carats per year but commissioning was delayed to 2014 following an accident that killed two employees last year.