Tsodilo Resources Limited has revealed that its Botswana subsidiary, Bosoto (Pty) Ltd, has taken possession of diamonds that were previously recovered from kimberlite BK16.
The company said it took possession of 2 diamond parcels totaling 108 diamonds collectively weighing 21.91carats on May 20, 2015. Parcel 1 consisted of 25 diamonds weighing 4.93 carats with 4 stones weighing more than 0.5 carats each, accounting for 2.96 carats or 59% of this parcel’s weight.
Parcel 2 consisted of 83 stones weighing 16.98 carats including 3 stones weighing 1.69, 1.12 and 0.98 carats each. Both parcels were recovered by then license holder Auridiam Botswana (Pty) Limited (“Auridiam”) in 1999 and 2000. The stones had been held in a safe deposit box at First National Bank’s main office in Gaborone, Botswana since their time of recovery and were transferred by Tsodilo to I. Hennig & Company’s office in Gaborone for counting and weighing.
Parcel 1 stones were recovered from five (5) 12.25 inch diameter holes via reverse circulation drilling while Parcel 2 was obtained at a depth of 30 meters into the kimberlite body via a mining shaft into what is referred to as the highly diluted basalt breccia which is found covering part of the pipe.
The company said diamond liberation as per the plant flowsheet consisted of a single stage crushing (impact crusher) unit followed by a scrubbing station and then to an eight foot diameter rotary-pan processing plant. The concentrate from the pan was then fed onto a three deck grease table on site.
Tsodilo President and COO, Dr. Michiel de Wit said they are fast tracking the evaluation of the BK16 kimberlite having just finish the diamond core drilling program of 3,600 meters only a few months after being granted the license.
“We are currently completing the geological model in order to plan for the large diameter drilling (LDD) program scheduled for later in the year. We have also acquired a mobile dense media separation (‘DMS’) treatment facility in Letlhakane which we will be upgrading over the next few months,” said de Wit.
“Our plan is to obtain an initial sample of some 2,500 to 3,000 tonnes to ascertain grades of the different kimberlite phases and to acquire more stones for valuation purposes. To view these previously recovered stones is very exciting and while one cannot attach too much significance to the results of these limited samples, it is important to take notice of the presence of relatively large stones in the BK16 samples”.
