JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – London-listed diamond development company Stellar Diamonds is looking to fast-track trial mining at its 5 ha Baoulé kimberlite diamond project, in Guinea, with a view to generating early cash flow and determining diamond grades and values.

"The diamondiferous Baoulé pipe is located in the heart of the Aredor diamond district of Guinea, which has historically yielded very large, high-value diamonds from alluvial mining. With an internal resource estimate of at least three-million carats at the lower end of the grade scale of between 13 [carats per hundred tons (cpht)] and 40 cpht, we are excited to further unlock the value in this high-tonnage project,” Stellar Diamonds CEO Karl Smithson said in a statement on Tuesday.

He added that the company had already made progress in establishing local infrastructure for the fully funded project and was in the process of relocating its earthmoving and kimberlite processing plant, located elsewhere in Guinea, to the Baoulé pipe.

Stellar expected to commission the Baoulé processing plant in August, saying that it would shortly appoint a company to undertake an independent environmental-impact assessment at the project ahead of the start of trial mining.

Further, road upgrades, and camp and plant infrastructure were well advanced and repairs and maintenance of selected mine fleet earthmoving vehicles had started. 

“This will enable a kimberlite stockpile to be established while the plant construction is ongoing,” noted Smithson. 

“The expected timetable is that the processing plant will be ready to commission and process initial diamondiferous and weathered kimberlite material by the end of August, after which trial mining will start.”

The Baoulé kimberlite pipe was discovered in 1999 and was subject to drilling and initial bulk sampling by earlier operators, with historical data suggesting a grade of between 13 cpht and 40 cpht and diamond value in excess of $200/ct.

In-house modelling of previous drilling over the pipe suggested a target of over 22-million tonnes to a depth of 300 m, suggesting a target of three-million carats.

“However, using the average microdiamond grade of 30 cpht, the target increases to 6.5-million carats. Internal company modelling suggests that the Baoulé pipe has the potential to host a significant diamond resource,” the company noted.