Botswana Diamonds Receives Five New Prospecting Licenses In Orapa
May 27, 14
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These PLs are high priority target areas for Botswana Diamonds, the firm said in a statement. The new licenses cover a total area of 1,357 sq km and will be explored as part of the ongoing joint venture between Botswana Diamonds and Russian diamond mining giant Alrosa.
“The ground was identified as high priority by Alrosa. Two of the licenses are of particular interest because historically they posed exploration challenges due to depth of sand and swamp conditions. Neither contain known kimberlites but the Alrosa analysis indicates the presence of kimberlites.”
Exploration on this new ground will be in addition to the work being carried out by the partners on a small license area in the Orapa area.
Two drill targets have already been identified on PL117 and mineralogical analysis of the samples is underway currently in Russia. The first batch of results is expected to be announced in the coming weeks, with more to follow 6-8 weeks later.
A drill program will be implemented on PL117. Alrosa is the world’s largest global diamond producer with 17 active mines in Siberia and, producing 36.9 million carats in 2013, they account for around 25 percent of global diamond production in terms of volume.
John Teeling, Chairman of Botswana Diamonds, said, “This is the good news we have been waiting for. The new license awards are important to Botswana Diamonds. We did not have rights over some of the targets identified by Alrosa. We now have some of the top targets on our licenses.
“In particular ground to the north and west of the main Orapa area which has problems with swampy conditions and deep sand. Little exploration has been done on these areas with no known kimberlites to date. Alrosa believes the ground has kimberlites and that their technology and expertise will find them. While setting up the fieldwork program on the new ground we will be drilling PL117. We have a joint budget of $1 million for 2014. We have funding for it,” he added.