JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed BlueRock Diamonds has reached the end of its trial mining period at its Kareevlei tenements, in the Northern Cape, and was ready to move on to commercial production, executive chairperson Paul Beck said on Tuesday.
BlueRock had also completed the transfer of the Kareevlei tenements to its subsidiary Kareevlei Mining.
Beck said production at Kareevlei, to date, had indicated that the predicted grade and dollar per carat value of the project were higher than initially expected.
BlueRock had removed about 10% of the kimberlite from the combined area of the K1 and K2 Kareevlei pipes, with no work having been carried out on the K3, K4 and K5 pipes.
On September 15, the company put its entire diamond inventory on hand, as at August 31, of 327.3 ct up for sale by tender.
The diamonds were offered for sale in a number of parcels and attracted offers of $77 571 in total, resulting in an average price of $237/ct, which was in line with the revenue per carat estimate provided by Z Star Mineral Resource Consultants.
“However, it should be noted that the size of the parcels tendered remains comparatively small and we will get greater certainty as to the overall quality of the diamonds recovered from the Kareevlei tenements once a total of 1 000 ct have been recovered and sold,” Beck said.
Meanwhile, as the company moved into commercial mining, the BlueRock board had decided to invest in new plant and equipment to upgrade the existing mining plant at a total cost of about £400 000, including working capital requirements.
This investment would increase the production of the facility, which was currently running at a capacity of less than 20 t/h, to 80 t/h, which translated into about 14 000 t/m based on a single shift a day.
Beck also noted that, during the six months ended June 30, the company recorded an operating loss and total comprehensive loss of £321 850.