Firestone hails Botswana find

This evaluation, based on exploring down to 500 metres below ground, suggested MK1 could hold 1.1 billion tonnes at 20 carats per hundred tonnes, but the company says 'the deepest samples show 119 carats per hundred tonnes'.

Bulk sampling should reveal the incidence of particularly large and disproportionately valuable stones in MK1 and further drilling will see how much deeper it goes. Firestone points out that the whole Tsabong area is four times the size of Jwaneng, gem-rich Botswana's richest diamond mine to date, owned jointly by the government and De Beers.