Gem says Ghaghoo Diamond Mine ‘progressing well’ despite recent fatality

Gem Diamonds said that its Ghaghoo Diamond project, which is located in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, in Botswana has “progressed well” on time and within budget.
This was despite an accident reported last week at the mine, which killed two workers.
The company said then that although a full assessment of the likely impact upon the project timeline and overall project costs was on-going, early indications were that the adverse ground conditions encountered together with this incident would result in a delay to the production of the first diamonds until the first half of 2014.
Production was scheduled to commence in 2013 at an initial rate of 100,000 carats per annum, rising steadily to a peak steady state production of 780,000 carats per annum.
Gem Diamonds managing director Haile Mphusu told the Botswana Resource Sector Conference that challenges with sand portion of the decline had also been encountered.
He said opportunities had been identified to keep delays and overruns within reasonable limits.
Gem said last March that the vertical sand tunnel at Ghaghoo diamond mine was 38 percent complete.

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