BlueRock Diamonds ramps up production

BlueRock Diamonds was ramping up production at its two plants, it reported on Thursday, with a strategic review underway to ensure it was operating at maximum efficiency.

The AIM-traded company appointed specialist mining consultancy VBKOM to join its management team, and to review its mining strategy and produce a life-of-mine plan in January.

Thursday’s update saw the board confirm that process was now underway, and was expected to be finalised in the next couple of months.

Additionally, BlueRock was looking to appoint an experienced mine manager as part of its strategic review, and had identified an individual it hoped to hire in the coming weeks.

On the production front, BlueRock’s combined throughput at the Kareevlei and Diacar plants was now in excess of 20,000 tonnes per month, up from 14,000 tonnes reported in December.

“The water shortages that we faced during the very dry summer have been alleviated by rain and a change in our processing which enables us to utilise the water that we have more efficiently and we are exploring ways of preventing this recurring,” the company’s board said in a statement.

BlueRock also reported that values per carat remained significantly higher than initially anticipated, with average values for the first three months of 2016 sitting at $263 per carat for Kareevlei and $469 for Diacar.

“However, until both plants are operating at their optimum efficiency we will be unable to be certain of our run of mine average value per carat,” the board explained.