PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Diamond developer Kimberley Diamonds said on Friday that it was making good progress with the environmental authorisation for its Lerala mine, in Botswana, which would pave the way for the reopening of the mine in mid-2015.
The company reported that the Botswana Department of Environmental Affairs had approved and completed the transfer of the previously approved environmental-impact assessment (EIA) from Lerala’s previous owner, DiamondEx Botswana, to Kimberley’s subsidiary, Lerala Diamond Mines.
However, prior to the restart of production, Kimberley was required to undertake a revision of the existing EIA and environmental management plan. The company said it had completed a number of specialist environmental studies and intended to submit a final report by the end of January next year.
It was expected that the new EIA would be obtained in May next year, allowing Kimberley to restart production on schedule. Once in production, Lerala would produce about 1.4-million tonnes of ore a year, producing an average of 375 000 ct/y over a seven-year mine-life.