Diamond junior Diamcor Mining is using only South African equipment suppliers for its Krone-Endora at Venetia project, located next to diamond major De Beers’ Venetia mine, in Limpopo.

Diamcor Mining acquired the Krone-Endora at Venetia project, which comprises the prospecting rights over the Krone 104 and Endora 66 farms and represents a combined surface area of about 5 888 ha, from De Beers in February 2011.

“Given the relationship of the Krone-Endora project and De Beers’ Venetia project, there was extensive initial evaluation work completed by De Beers on Krone-Endora at Venetia over about 20 years,” says Diamcor Mining CEO Dean Taylor. “Since acquiring the project, Diamcor completed extensive drilling and sampling and compiled a new National Instrument 43-101 report with the assistance of several South African geological firms.” Geological testwork was done by Mintek.

Further, the construction and installation of infrastructure, the design and assembly of the processing plant, heavy-equipment purchases and various other preparations associated with a planned fully functioning mine site have also been completed.

“In addition to these elements, many hours of consulting engineering and other professional services were required. In virtually all cases, South African suppliers’ services were used,” Taylor says.

Diamcor Mining has used South African products and services as they are convenient and cost effective, he says.

“As a mining-focused country, there is also a wealth of knowledge and experience in South Africa,” he adds.

“However, as Diamcor Mining has a history of production in South Africa, it will perform the mining, as opposed to using a mining contractor,” Taylor points out.

Meanwhile, Diamcor Mining is proud of its commitment to ensuring that it has a high percentage of female mineworkers on its mine, Taylor says, adding that the company’s overall target is for 50% of the workforce on the Krone-Endora at Venetia project to be women.

Project Progress
In 2012, with its Tiffany & Co strategic alliance in place, Diamcor Mining was able to complete the bulk of the site infrastructure and plant construction and progress towards its goal of full-scale production, Taylor says.

“We were able to announce the initial recoveries of diamonds from the commissioning and testing of the new plant and the subsequent additional funding through Tiffany & Co, as well as sell our first 3 500 ct in November last year,” he adds.

The $4-million additional funding provided by Tiffany & Co will allow Diamcor Mining to further expand and prepare for full mining by incorporating new equipment and in-field quarrying solutions to refine the processing, based on what the company has gained from commissioning up to now, Taylor explains.

“Doing so will allow us to reach our targets faster, with the primary goal to supply diamonds to the Tiffany & Co facilities in Johannesburg for beneficiation in South Africa,” he adds.

Diamcor Mining’s goal for this year is to complete the final commissioning work early in the first quarter of 2013, after which it will proceed with the planned move from trial mining to full-scale production in the second quarter.

“Our initial target is to ramp up to 10 000 ct/m and further expand production in the coming years,” Taylor concludes.