JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – A drilling programme was scheduled to start on the PL117 licence area in Orapa during the third week of September, Aim-listed Botswana Diamonds said on Friday.
Two specific drill targets – AN117/1 and AN117/2 – situated within the Northern part of the 2.9 km2 block, were prospective for the discovery of kimberlite bodies.
An “enlarged team” of 50:50 joint venture partner Alrosa’s geologists, geophysicists and mineralogists would join the Botswana Diamonds team in the country in mid-September to undertake, and study the results of, 100 m of verification drilling.
Specimens and samples would also be sent for analysis to St Petersburg, Russia.
“In addition, we are finalising an extensive Orapa exploration programme on our new ground also starting in September. It has taken two years of painstaking data gathering and analysis to get to first drilling. The programme is eagerly anticipated,” Botswana Diamonds chairperson John Teeling commented.