JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Perth-based Mount Burgess Mining has been granted seven prospecting licences for diamond exploration in Western Ngamiland, in Botswana.

The licences cover an area of about 7 000 km2 on the south-eastern margins of the Angolan Craton, and was highly prospective for the discovery of diamondiferous kimberlites.

The area in Botswana adjoins the diamond exploration licences held by the company at Tsumkwe, in north-eastern Namibia, where the Mount Burgess has discovered three kimberlites, to date.

Mount Burgess believed that it was in an advantageous position to have secured the grant of these prospecting licences in Botswana, as it had now consolidated a significant area, which was highly prospective for the discover of diamondiferous kimberlites.

Through its previous base-metals exploration and resource development of its Kihabe zinc/lead/silver project, which fell within the same area of Botswana, the company had a base camp and infrastructure from which it could conduct future diamond exploration programmes, within reasonable distance.

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