Photo by: Duane Daws
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Five senior geologists from Aim-listed Botswana Diamonds’ joint venture (JV) partner, Russia-based diamond group Alrosa, have joined the Botswana team on site at the JV’s PL117 licence project, in the Orapa region.
The partners would now carry out further soil sampling, geophysical and geochemical work to define exact drill targets, with drilling expected to start in the second quarter of the year.
Alrosa, which had 17 active mines in Siberia and produced 36.9-million carats in 2013, accounted for some 25% of global diamond production in terms of volume and value.
Botswana Diamonds chairperson John Teeling said on Wednesday that Alrosa would contribute its unique exploration skills to Botswana Diamonds’ local knowledge, skills and experience to identify the best targets.
“We have identified licence PL117 as a key focus and the objective now is to apply Alrosa's [experience] of diamond exploration technology to locate high priority targets which we expect to drill.
“In addition to this work on PL117, we are confident that we will soon announce the successful acquisition of new ground that will be worked under our Alrosa JV,” he added.