South Africa : Botswana Diamonds expects 500 carats recovery at Thorny River

Botswana Diamonds Plc (BOD) expects to hike diamond recovery to 500 carats on site in the Thorny River project as it plans to proceed shortly with bulk sampling.

The junior diamond explorer revealed this on Wednesday as it reported extension of drilling in the project. It plan to test recently identified anomaly in Hartbeesfontein licence which may be a kimberlite pipe.

Commenting on this, Chairman John Teeling said : “We are making excellent progress in South Africa. The recently completed geophysical survey identified an anomaly on the Hartbeesfontein farm which may be a kimberlite pipe. We are now drilling an additional 8 holes on this anomaly to test this”.
The company is also commencing a bulk sample "in order to obtain enough data to produce a statistically valid estimate of grade and diamond value",  he added. An inferred resource is expected by year end in the project.

The Thorny River project, previously Zebediela project, is located some 2 km east of the mined out Marsfontein pipe which measured 0.4 hectares in size and which produced 1.8 million carats of diamonds at an average grade of 172 carats per hundred tons (CPHT). Commissioned in 1998, the operations at Marsfontein delivered a payback on investment in less than 4 days.

Listed on several stock markets, Botswana Diamonds Plc has a solid portfolio of diamond assets especially in Botswana, including joint-venture with the Russian group Alrosa, the world’s largest rough diamond producer by volume.