De Beers waiting for SA authorities to Okay Venetia expansion

De Beers said it is waiting for the South African government’s go-ahead to move forward on its planned underground expansion at Venetia diamond mine.
Group chief executive Philippe Mellier was quoted by Mining Weekly as saying during a conference call that De Beers was “ready to go”.
The project had already received most of the shareholders' approval and, pending final shareholder formalities.
The proposed expansion of the current opencast diamond operations would extend the life-of-mine from 2021 by another 30 years to 2046.
It would also yield a further 100-million carats of diamonds over its lifetime.
De Beers expected to invest about $2.1-billion in the Venetia underground mine from now until 2021.
Meanwhile, the group, which is the world’s second diamond producer by volume after Russia’s ALROSA said its earnings halved in the first six months of the year due to harsh trading conditions.
Its profit before finance charges and taxation during the period under review was $502 million down from $1.02 billion realised a year earlier.
De Beers, which is set to be controlled by Anglo American after agreeing in November last year to buy out the Oppenheimer family’s 40 percent stake, said that the remainder of 2012 would remain challenging.

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