Diamcor Mining will begin an extensive drilling and bulk sampling programme over the greater portions of its Krone and Endora properties at the Venetia diamond mine project in South Africa.
It said the programme seeks to further identify and locate additional material that is known to have shifted and eroded from the adjacent De Beers' Venetia diamond mine, which is recognised as one of the top-producing diamond mines in the world.
The initial trial-mining efforts undertaken to date have provided Diamcor with a better understanding of the shift and erosion of the estimated 1,000 vertical meters of material from the De Beers Venetia diamond mine kimberlite clusters that are known to have been displaced in the direction of Krone and Endora properties.
"The considerable effort to date now allows us to proceed with this drilling and bulk sampling on the greater areas of the Project," said Diamcor chief executive Dean Taylor.
"The knowledge gained from previous trial-mining and the sale of rough diamonds, along with recent modelling and initial input of some of the industry's most respected geological experts, all point to the potential to identify significant additional material from the known shift and erosion off of Venetia."
Diamcor said the establishment of infrastructure, two large processing plants, heavy equipment, and the extensive large-scale trial mining exercises completed to date in the initial area of 657 hectares of the Project's total 5,888 hectares, have allowed it to refine unique approaches to mining using advanced technology to extract diamonds in a safe, efficient, and environmentally responsible manner.
The previous establishment of these collective items will allow Diamcor to advance additional drilling and bulk sampling efforts in a very cost-effective and efficient manner, it said.
Diamcor said trial mining exercises were expected to continue on portions of the initial area in conjunction with the additional drilling and bulk sampling exercises.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
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