JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed Botswana Diamonds has started reconnaissance work on its PL 085 licence, as well as heavy concentrate sampling at its PL 206 licence, at its Orapa project, following the arrival of a seven-person Russian team of geologists and mineralogists.
Heavy concentrate sampling to evaluate kimberlite indicator minerals and their proximity from potential primary sources, as well as drilling, was expected to start on anomaly AN210-1, on licence PL 210, which would follow the reconnaissance work.
Drilling was expected to be completed this month.
The target was an anomaly of good indicator minerals with coincident magnetic and electromagnetic signatures. Three boreholes, to a depth of 110 m each, would be drilled.
Core samples would then be analysed for the presence of kimberlite, with an immediate visual inspection by the on-site joint venture partner Alrosa’s mineralogists to be followed by in-depth laboratory analysis of the cores at the Alrosa in-house facility in St Petersburg, Russia.
“Following this, the team will move to our licences in the Gope region. On these small licence areas, measuring 46 km2, 48 km2 and 3.3 km2 respectively, exploration will start with verification sampling using small-grid geophysics and magnetic geochemistry. The objective is to define potential new drill targets,” the company said in a statement.