Firestone plans First Diamond Tender In 4th Quarter

Brian Benza
Staff Writer | Monday September 6, 2010 00:00

 

In a statement, the company says early recoveries included a 13.7-carat stone with value estimated at USD5 000 per carat.

Chief Executive Philip Kenny says the recovery is very significant and confirms management's expectation that larger diamonds will be recovered at BK11.

Firestone, which agreed to buy rival Kopane Diamond Developments for AUD71 million for the Liqhobong kimberlite project in July, says plans developed in relation to the mine are at an advanced stage.

Aim-listed Firestone, which also plans to list on the BSE bourse soon, says it also expects its BK11 production plant to 'comfortably exceed' its targeted capacity of 1,5 million tons a year by the fourth quarter, at which time the diamond miner also plans to hold its first diamond tender in Botswana.

The company has commissioned a diamond sorting facility in Gaborone where concentrate from BK11 and its other future mines will be shipped for sorting, acidisation and preparation for sale.

The facility is designed to accommodate diamond tenders as well, the first of which will be held during the fourth quarter of this year, Firestone notes the statement.

At BK11, the first phase of the production plant, which had a design throughput of 650 000 tonnes per year, started operating in July. The plant has since been achieving an average plant throughput of 185 tonnes per hour, higher than the anticipated 150 tonnes per hour.

Construction of the second phase, which will increase throughput to 1,5 million tons a year run-of-mine, has been undertaken in parallel with the Phase One construction and will be completed by the end of this month.

The plant will then ramp up to its full output by the fourth quarter of the year.

Further, Firestone is also ahead of its earthmoving targets for BK11, with 170 000 tonnes of material having been removed since July.

Pre-stripping work of topsoil and near-surface low-grade kimberlite will continue throughout September, with the higher-grade kimberlite at the KW mining area still on schedule to be accessed and available for treatment by October.

'We are very pleased with the progress that we have made at BK11 since production commenced in July,' says Kenny. 'To have reached our target earthmoving and production plant capacity ahead of schedule and only seven weeks after the start of production is an exceptional achievement.'

The BK11 Mine is expected to produce about one million carats of diamonds over its 10-year life.

Meanwhile, the company announced that at a general meeting last Friday, shareholders gave their approval to the deal to purchase Kopane.