JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Sierra Leone’s Environmental Protection Agency has granted Aim-listed Stellar Diamonds an environmental licence for its Tongo diamond mining project.
It is now expected that the National Minerals Agency will draw up the Tongo mining licence for consideration.
“The receipt of the environmental licence marks an important milestone in the proposed development of the Tongo deposit into commercial production,” CEO Karl Smithson said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Tongo project forms part of the proposed 4.5-million-carat combined Tongo-Tonguma mine development, which has the potential to be the second largest hard rock diamond mine in West Africa and which is expected to have one of the highest dollar per tonne kimberlite ore values globally.