JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed Botswana Diamonds has completed a drilling programme on PL 186, on the Maibwe ground, in the Kalahari Desert, it said in a statement of Monday.

“We identified the locations of the previously drilled holes where significant quantities of diamonds were discovered. We drilled three reverse circulation percussion holes in the immediate area to assess the accuracy of the earlier results. Samples are going for analysis,” chairperson John Teeling said.

Reporting on the company’s interim results for the six months ended December 31, Teeling noted that significant quantities of G10 garnets have been recovered at its flagship Frischgewaagt project, a 4-km-long dyke/blow system that is currently being drilled. 

As part of an ongoing drilling programme, some 34 percussion and nine core holes have been drilled of which 22 percussion and eight core holes have intersected kimberlite. 

The kimberlite has been identified as hypabyssal and the same age, late Jurassic, as the Marsfontein kimberlite which contained a high grade of diamonds. 

Petrographic and microdiamond analyses are ongoing with initial results expected in the coming months. 

Work on the Maibwe joint venture (JV) has been severely delayed owing to the liquidation of main shareholder and operator BCL.

After extensive discussions with the two remaining shareholders, Future Minerals and Siseko, it was agreed that Botswana Diamonds would fund a verification drilling programme. 

“Drilling deep inside the inaccessible Kalahari Desert is challenging but it was successfully accomplished by a Botswana Diamonds team. Analysis will take up to two months.”
 
Another active programme is the ongoing JV with Alrosa. 

This JV is beginning its seventh fieldwork programme in April. The focus remains on the Orapa and Gope regions of Botswana. 

The intensive and extensive exploration programme on PL 260 in Orapa did not produce the desired results. 

There is a proposal to drill the remaining known kimberlite on block AK 23. 

There are ongoing discussions between Alrosa and the company’s specialists regarding the optimal way to proceed. 

Beginning in April, a team of Alrosa geologists, geophysicists and mineralogists will undertake sampling and geophysical studies on four licences, PL 260 in Orapa, and PL 135, 235 and 234 in the Gope area.
 
The company in February raised £525 000 to fund the exploration activities.