Petra Diamonds establishes second artisanal mining initiative
London-listed Petra Diamonds on Thursday launched its Artisanal Small-scale Mining (ASM) initiative in the Free State.
The launch follows a process of consultation and cooperating with relevant stakeholders, including the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, the Letsemeng local municipality, and the community of Koffiefontein itself.
During the project, the aim was to create a framework within which ASM can be conducted by community members in a legal and regulated manner.
Petra believes there is space for artisanal small-scale miners to co-exist with formalised, large-scale mining, since ASM can “often profitably recover diamonds from resources that would be unprofitable”, or at best marginal, for a larger operator owing to the capital and overhead costs involved.
A decision was taken to make available some of the tailings mineral resources, notably the resource generally referred to as the "Eskom dump", for the benefit of the community of Koffiefontein.
The intention, Petra said in a statement, was that properly regulated artisanal mining, which would comply with the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, as well as other standards for such operations set by, inter alia, the United Nations, would be conducted on this resource.
This is the second ASM initiative put in place by the company, further to Petra's efforts and involvement in establishing the ASM sector in Kimberley.
Work on the project at Koffiefontein started soon after the conclusion of the above agreement, with the intention to take into account the learnings from the initiative in Kimberley and put in place an ASM dispensation in Koffiefontein that would be able to both optimally exploit the available resource, and accrue maximum benefit to the community.
Petra considers the initiative another of its milestones in the Petra legacy, CEO Richard Duffy commented.
Comments
The
content
you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.
If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.
If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.
For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation