Gem Diamonds to establish Lesotho manufacturing facility
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – London-listed Gem Diamonds was in the process of establishing an in-country manufacturing facility for its flagship Lesotho-based Letšeng mine to further develop downstream activities.
The facility, which was expected to process certain categories of the mine’s rough diamond production, using proprietary diamond processing technology, would be completed during the second half of 2013.
The mine would, as part of the development of Letšeng's downstream activities and capabilities, ramp up to full production by 2014.
This followed the scaling back of the company’s Project Kholo – an expansion programme initiated at Letšeng in 2011 to double production capacity.
Gem Diamonds wrote off $1.4-million after the group re-evaluated the project in 2012.
“The project management team is actively investigating the optimal allocation of capital to fund an optimised Project Kholo with a lower capital requirement,” the company said in a statement.
However, the elements of Project Kholo deemed more capital efficient and offering near-term returns would continue implementation.
Letšeng had achieved production of 114 350 ct during the year ended December 2012 – up 2% from its record production of 112 367 ct in 2011.
The average recovered grade at the mine was 1.75 carats per hundred ton (cpht), up from 1.65 cpht in 2011. Over 645 rough diamonds greater than 10.8 ct were recovered in 2012.
Comments
The
functionality
you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.
If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.
If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.
For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.
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