Firestone sees high quality diamond recovery at Liqhobong

Firestone Diamonds said that a “good progress” has been made in improving the quality and value of diamonds recovered at Liqhobong Mine, in Lesotho following the plant shut down last July to fit equipment necessary to reduce diamond breakage of larger stones.
It said in a statement emailed to Rough&Polished that it had recovered three yellow stones weighing 27, 17 and 15 carats as well as three white stones weighing 12.4, 9.2 and 9.1 carats during the last quarter.
Further improvements were also expected in the short term as the K5 higher grade rock was exposed and processed, it said.
"We are happy with the progress that we have made at the Pilot Plant in September which has continued into October, after overcoming technical and weather challenges in July and August,” said Firestone Diamonds chief executive Tim Wilkes.
“The change in the amount of whiter stones recovered is also encouraging which should continue on an upward trend as the mine plan calls for more of the higher grade, larger stone bearing areas of the pit to be mined during the remainder of the year.”
He also said the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) remained on track and the results would be announced by the end of October.

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