Junior diamond mining company Diamcor Mining has recovered a 45.15 ct gem-quality rough diamond from the processing of quarry material at its Krone-Endora at Venetia project in South Africa.

This large rough diamond in the Specials category (weighing more than 10.8 ct) follows the previously recovered 72.53 ct gem-quality rough diamond announced on February 21.

The recovery of this second large gem-quality rough diamond, along with the pending sale of about 2 000 additional carats delivered for tender and sale, is expected to positively impact revenues and offset the lower-than-anticipated current processing volumes associated with the loadshedding being experienced in South Africa.

Diamcor also provided a further update on the progress on the procurement and installation of a comprehensive long-term supplementary power solution at the project.

Various options were evaluated by its operational management team throughout 2022 in anticipation of potential issues with consistent power supply in South Africa, with the main focus being to provide the project with systems to eliminate potential downtime and lost processing time.

The chosen system will incorporate various items including a large battery energy storage system element, power conditioning, switching systems and generator backup systems.

The solution has been designed to provide the project with a globally recognised tier one energy management system to provide a long-term seamless uninterrupted transition between traditional grid power supply, battery systems and generator backup systems.

Moreover, the system will provide power conditioning to “clean” all power being supplied to the project’s processing plant, which is expected to provide significant benefits including increased reliability of electronics while lowering maintenance on the processing plant’s electrical systems.

Diamcor says it is expediting these efforts owing to the current elevated issues surrounding the inconsistent supply of power in South Africa by State-owned utility Eskom. The company is targeting the installation of these systems to be completed prior to the end of the next quarter.

While the total carats of rough diamonds tendered and sold in the current quarter continues to be lower than anticipated owing to widely reported increases in daily loadshedding throughout South Africa, ongoing efforts to maximise recoveries and the continued recovery of larger gem-quality rough diamonds in the Specials category are expected to offset this issue in the near term.

The combination of the project’s relatively high percentage of gem-quality diamonds recovered to date, along with the recent recovery of two large gem-quality special rough diamonds, is expected to have a positive impact on the average dollar per carat for the current period.

Tender and sales totalling 1 538.62 ct of rough diamonds in the current quarter to date have generated gross revenues of $980 696.08, resulting in an average price of $637.39/ct.

Even while operating at restricted processing levels, the company says its two recent discoveries continue to confirm the potential for these types of large rough diamonds to be recovered from the project’s deposits and provide positive impact to gross revenues.

Diamcor continues to process material and manage inconsistencies in power supply, delivering about 2 000 ct of additional rough diamonds for tender and sale. Additional rough diamonds recovered prior to March 31 will either be tendered and sold in a final tender and sale of the current period, or held as stock on hand at the end of the period, and tendered in the company’s next quarter.