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James Campbell: Botswana Diamonds optimistic as it enters uncharted territory of using AI for mineral exploration

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Lucara improves diamond recovery method

13 september 2017
Lucara Diamond said it is in the final stages of commissioning the Mega Diamond Recovery (MDR) and new Sub-Middles XRT circuit in the Karowe plant, in Botswana.
“This is an area where the company is again setting the groundwork for a paradigm shift in the way diamonds are recovered, replacing the dense medium separation (DMS) plant and entire recovery process with a single machine,” Company chief executive William Lamb was quoted as saying by Mining Journal.
“One of the characteristics of the south lobe ore is the density of the kimberlite material.
“The XRT technology will allow us to continue to process material at the plant’s original design throughput with minimal capital expenditure versus installing additional DMS capacity and an enormous recovery plant to handle the concentrate.”
He said the Sub-Middles XRT circuit was primarily, along with the already installed XRT machines, responsible for the ore characteristics.
“The MDR, however, is as early as possible in the process flowsheet – in fact, directly after the primary crusher. Material from around 45mm up to 120mm is screened off for processing through the new MDR XRT circuit,” said Lamb.
“This system is designed for up-front value recovery. Prior to the large diamonds produced by the south lobe being exposed to areas where they could be potentially broken, we aim to recover them as soon as possible, thus preserving the value.”
Mining Journal also reported that Lucara was investing “heavily” in exploration and material testing at depth to secure Karowe’s future beyond the projected 2026 end of openpit extraction, and below the 320m pit plan.
It currently had an inferred resource of about 4Mct below the 6.3Mct reserve to 400m.

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished