BlueRock Diamonds restarts mining at Kareevlei

AIM-listed diamond producer BlueRock Diamonds has resumed operations at its Kareevlei diamond mine in the Kimberley region of South Africa after a safety breach notice.
The diamond company had temporarily suspended operations after South Africa's Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) instructed it to do so.
BlueRock said last week that the shutdown was expected not to alter the guidance for the year ended 31 December 2021 of between 22,000 and 26,000 carats produced.
Meanwhile, the company said the commissioning of a new plant designed to increase production to one million tonnes per annum and carats produced to between 40,000 and 43,000 carats per annum is progressing well.
It said the crushing circuit and Line 1 are now fully operational and achieving design capacity. 
The old plant was closed last week and the two pans, as planned, have been refurbished and fitted to Line 2, which will be fed ore this week ahead of the ramp-up to full production.
"We are confident that given the experience of commissioning Line 1, commissioning Line 2 should be relatively straightforward, which should enable us to fast track to full production,” said BlueRock executive chairman Mike Houston.
“Pleasingly, the mine had, prior to the short suspension of mining activities, been building up stocks of crushed ore and will resume doing so until early December when Line 2 is expected to be fully operational."

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