Junior diamond miner Diamcor Mining has delivered 2 750 ct of rough diamonds for tender and sale in the current quarter.

The diamonds, recovered from the processing of quarry material at the company’s Krone-Endora at Venetia project, in Limpopo, South Africa, will be tendered over the coming weeks.

When combined with the 2 526.91 ct tendered and sold in October, this brings the total rough diamonds delivered for tender and sale, to date in the quarter, to about 5 276.91 ct.

“We are pleased with the additional delivery of rough diamonds for the current quarter, and our efforts remain focused on now adding to these results as we proceed into the second half of this quarter.

"Given the normal timeframes between the delivery of rough diamonds and their tender and sale, we believe the positive impact of the recently completed Phase 1 upgrades will continue to be realised over the coming weeks and quarters," says CEO Dean Taylor.

TSX-V-listed Diamcor continues to advance the larger Phase 2 upgrades to its processing facilities, which remain on schedule for completion in the first half of 2022. These additional upgrades are projected to generate further increases beyond the 100% increase in historical volumes targeted and associated with the now completed Phase 1 upgrades.

Meanwhile, the company reports that it has also finalised the commissioning of revisions to its back-up generators to further advance the company’s standby power upgrades and accommodate load-shedding by South Africa’s State-owned power supplier entity Eskom.

In addition, like many other larger entities in South Africa, Diamcor is in discussions with several groups with regard to the addition of solar power and/or other alternative power sources to supplement the electricity supplied by Eskom.

Standby power upgrades, including a solar power option, mitigate the impact of future load-shedding, provide the added benefit of potentially reducing Krone-Endora at Venetia's carbon footprint, and are expected to also reduce operating costs.