Kimberley Diamonds to restart Botswana project, withdraws E4 funding
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Kimberley Diamonds has approved A$14.7-million to recommission the Lerala diamond project, which the previous owner Mantle Diamonds placed on care and maintenance in 2012.
Commissioning of Lerala, which is situated near the Martin’s Drift border post with South Africa, is expected to start in the first half of the 2015 calendar year. At full production, the mine is set to produce 400 000 ct/y of diamonds.
Kimberley Diamonds reported on Monday that it planned to appoint a contract miner for Lerala and that it had engaged consultants to provide lump sum turnkey pricing for the recomissioning of the operation. The company also engaged environmental consultants to analyse and advise on health, safety and environmental aspects of the mine.
“Delays in receiving environmental approvals could impact on the planned commencement of operations,” the company said.
Meanwhile, Kimberley Diamonds announced that it had withdrawn the A$14.3-million funding commitment it had made in February to develop the Ellendale E4 mine, in Australia, which is on care and maintenance.
“The board will revisit the development of E4 in due course. At this time, mining of the E9 pipe is continuing at Ellendale and preliminary work on E4 is also continuing,” the company said in a statement.
Kimberley Diamonds is considering options to extend the life of the E9 operation, focusing on treatment of course tailings. Mining was restarted at the E9 pipe in April this year.
Comments
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation