BlueRock Diamonds' shares up after Kareevlei operations update

Shares in BlueRock Diamonds are up more than 5% thanks to a well-received update on operations at Kareevlei, its licence area in the Northern Cape of South Africa.

The licence area contained five known kimberlite pipes.

"The first blast of the current series was completed successfully on 9 February 2017, liberating approximately 15,000 tonnes of kimberlite," the company said.

It added that material from this blast was now being processed through the processing plant.

"The new primary crushing and screening circuit is expected be commissioned later this week when volumes will start to gradually ramp up."

CEO Adam Waugh said it was encouraging that the company was finally processing run-of-mine material for the first time since June 2016.

At 10:29 GMT, shares in AIM-quoted BlueRock were up 5.26% to 5p each.