Botswana Diamonds to start Thorny River production in second half of 2023

Botswana Diamonds is expected to commence production at the Thorny River hard rock kimberlite dyke system, in South Africa during the second half of 2023.
Company chairperson John Teeling said they will have to obtain two full mining permits over the Thorny River licences before production commences.
“Once the permits have been issued and the gravels mined out at Marsfontein, the plant and equipment will move to Thorny River,” he said.
Botswana Diamonds has already started producing diamonds from the Marsfontein dumps and gravels project in South Africa.
The company contracted out all production operations in return for a 15% production royalty on run-of-mine goods, and 25% on special diamonds. 
“Teething issues at Marsfontein, along with plant delivery delays and adverse weather delayed the first production by a month,” he said.
Teeling said current operations are processing 500 tonnes of dumps and gravels per day and diamonds are now being produced although they do not yet have a true representation of the average grade and quality.
Meanwhile, Botswana Diamonds said its 51%-owned Siseko agreed with BCL, a former copper producer in the country, to acquire 50% of each of the 10 prospecting licenses in the central Kalahari.
“Given the Kalahari’s potential, we allowed certain low-potential licences to expire,” said Teeling.

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