Paragon Diamonds Limited says it is finalising the design and order plans for a state of the art processing plant for its 80% owned Meso Diamonds’ Lemphane kimberlite mine in Lesotho.
According to the company, the plant’s modular design and use of the latest X-Ray Transmission (XRT) diamond recovery technology will reduce both capital and operating costs, improve diamond recovery and as a result significantly enhance the project’s economics.
“This update is in line with the company’s objective to commence Stage I production at Lemphane in Q1 2015, which will involve the extraction of 1 million tonnes of kimberlite over a two year period and, according to an independent report, is expected to lead to the recovery of over 100 diamonds larger than 9 carats, including stones over 100 carats in size,” Paragon said in an update.
It added that the finalisation of design and order plans for US$6 million 75tonne per hour (0.5Mt/yr) processing plant follows a comprehensive analysis of various plant options and evaluation of technologies successfully used by other key industry players previously.
Paragon’s Chairman, Philip Falzon Sant Manduca said the construction of this ‘state of the art’ processing plant is a major milestone for the company as in nears the Q1 2015 target for the commencement of Stage I production.
“We have therefore cherry-picked the best-in-class X-Ray technology for our plant, which not only lowers our forecast operating costs but also maximises the recovery rates of large high value stones at Lemphane, reduces the potential for breakages, and enhances on-site security,” he said.
The project is located among a cluster of kimberlites known for producing large, high value diamonds. The plant’s modular design and use of the latest X-Ray Transmission (XRT) diamond recovery technology will reduce both capital and operating costs at Lemphane, improve diamond recovery, and as a result significantly enhance the Project’s economics.
The Stage I production at Lemphane in Q1 2015, which will involve the extraction of 1 million tonnes of kimberlite over a two year period and, according to an independent report, is expected to lead to the recovery of over 100 diamonds larger than 9 carats, including stones over 100 carats in size.
Manduca said Lemphane delivers a strong platform from which we can build Paragon into a vertically integrated diamond house, with material interests in upstream and downstream activities to capture as much value as possible for our shareholders.
“Thanks to the plant’s modular design its capacity can be easily scaled up to accommodate Stage II’s higher volumes, which along with the current technology to be adopted will translate into a significant reduction in Stage II’s CAPEX requirement. When measured against a static quantum of resource, this increases the potential magnitude for future revenues and therefore substantially improves Lemphane’s potentially attractive economics”.
“This lies behind a further increase in Titanium’s commitment to Paragon in the form of assurance towards the design and pre-ordering costs of the plant to the relevant contractors, so that we have a greater potential to meet our timetable of production commencing in Q1 2015. I look forward to providing further updates in the near term.”
