Botswana Diamonds evaluates open-pit options for River Blow

Botswana Diamonds announced the results of a conceptual open-pit mine optimisation evaluation on the River Blow of the Thorny River property in South Africa on Monday.

The AIM-traded firm said the analysis of the blow and its extension indicated potential open pit options.

It said that, assuming mid-range diamond values of $170 per carat, mid-range mining costs, a discount rate of 10%, a recovered grade of 40 carats per hundred tons, and 1.7 million tons of kimberlite mined, indicated that a mine was “likely to be commercial”.

The results excluded any additional resources from adjacent targets, which would be drilled in the coming months.

“The purpose of this exercise was to determine whether there was commercial potential in the Thorny River discoveries,” said managing director James Campbell.

“The conceptual open pit evaluation shows that even at low revenue factors the kimberlite is potentially commercial when applying current industry standard mining and processing costs.

“This exercise will be updated following drilling on the adjacent high priority targets.”

Chairman John Teeling added that the evaluation showed that there was potential for an open pit mine at Thorny River, and that there was the potential for operational positive cash flow even at low levels of diamond recovery.

“We will continue to work on the project including determining the capital cost,” Teeling said.

“We anticipate that drilling in the coming months will extend mineable kimberlite volume.”

At 0810 BST, shares in Botswana Diamonds were down 5.96% at 1.11p.