Botswana Diamonds has received an environmental authorisation from South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy on one of its two mining permit applications on the Thorny River project. It said a mining permit should be granted within the next six weeks following further community consultation.
Botswana Diamonds applied for the two mining permits on the Thorny River project in late 2022 following a comprehensive exploration programme that comprised ground geophysics, drilling and bulk sampling as well as a positive mine planning exercise carried out by an independent consultant.
Thorny River is six kilometres away from Marsfontein where a recent proof of concept operation was concluded.
The project consists of a kimberlite blow on a kimberlite dyke system very similar to Marsfontein and assuming mid-range diamond values of $170 per carat, mid-range mining costs, a discount rate of 10% and a recovered grade of 40 carats per hundred metric tonnes (cpht) suggests that 1.7 million tonnes of kimberlite could be mined over the life of mine.
"We are delighted to see that this authorisation has come through and we anticipate that the mining permit will soon be granted,” said Botswana Diamonds chairperson John Teeling.
“The Thorny River project is well placed to restart and expand mining operations when prices recover."
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor-In-Chief, Rough & Polished
