Botswana Diamonds chairperson John Teeling
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed Botswana Diamonds has refined its Vutomi joint venture’s estimate for the grade at its Frischgewaagt project, in South Africa.
This followed the inclusion of the results of the bulk sample and an update to the estimation analysis technique, which indicated a medium grade of 78 carats per hundred tonnes (cpht) in a range of 64 to 110 cpht at a bottom cut off of +1 mm.
“An estimated midpoint grade of 78 cpht at Frischgewaagt is very good news. The former Marsfontein mine is close by on the same dyke system [and] had better grades and this was a blow.
“Even better news is the identification of potential blows on the dyke. We will focus our upcoming drilling on these anomalies,” Botswana Diamonds chairperson John Teeling said in an update to shareholders.
A geophysics programme has been completed and evaluation is ongoing.
Initial results indicated that the dyke system has expanded from 6 km to 7.5 km and that three anomalies have been defined, which could be blows or small pipes on the dyke.
The drilling programme will start late this month and will focus on testing the anomalies with the intention of having an initial inferred resource by the end of the year.