Name and Location
Lace diamond mine development project, Free State, South Africa.

Client
Lace Diamond Mines (LDM), a 74% subsidiary of DiamondCorp.

Project Description
The 1.2-million-tonne-a-year Lace mine is expected to produce more than 500 000 ct/y of diamonds at peak production.

The Main pipe contains 33.1-million tons of kimberlite, indicated and inferred to a depth of 855 m, containing an estimated 13.4-million carats in both resource categories at an average grade of 40.1 ct per hundred tonnes (cpht).

The resource has an in situ value of more than $2-billion at $160/ct.

The deposit will be mined using block-cave mining, with three caves planned over the 25-year life-of-mine (LoM) on the 47, 67 and 85 levels at depths of 470 m, 670 m and 850 m respectively.

The kimberlite is open at depth, with a significant bulge between 250 m and 360 m. The kimberlite can potentially add additional tonnage and diamonds not currently included in the resource statement.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Value
The total development cost of the project, including working capital and a 15% contingency on capital and development costs, is estimated at R384-million.

Duration
The Lace mine is due to start production in the second half of 2015.

Latest Developments
DiamondCorp is expecting a ten-fold increase in its capacity to haul ore out of its Lace mine, following the installation and commissioning of a 400 t/h underground conveyor belt system.

The conveyor belt not only provides Lace with the ability to increase development rates – the cost of future development will decrease in the absence of trucks for waste hauling, as the underground loaders will now empty their buckets directly onto the end of the conveyor belt, which will continue to be extended as the development goes deeper.

Until block cave production starts, the use of trucks will be confined to hauling kimberlite from the Upper K4 Block production level to the tipping point on the conveyor belt.

The conveyor belt capacity is double the current front-end capacity of the processing plant so that future opportunities for increasing the underground mining rate will not be constrained by an inability to transport ore to surface, and allow the conveyer belt to handle kimberlite and development waste.

Meanwhile, DiamondCorp has pointed out that the drought conditions in South Africa will not impact on kimberlite mining ramping up, as the additional capacity at the storage dam, built in 2014 will provide sufficient water to process all kimberlite mining for the next 12 months.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
The mine’s ramp-up is expected to start six months ahead of the original schedule.

Contact Details for Project Information
DiamondCorp, tel +44 20 3151 0970, fax +44 20 3151 0971 or email info@diamondcorp.plc.uk