Botswana recovers four diamonds from River extension drilling

Botswana Diamonds announced on Tuesday that four high-quality diamonds and “abundant” kimberlitic indicators had been recovered from drill samples at the recently-discovered River Kimberlite Extension, at Thorny River in South Africa’s Limpopo province.

The AIM-traded firm said the four diamonds were of “good” colour and clarity, adding that the “abundant” diamond indicators included G10, G9 and eclogitic garnets.

It said the River Extension blow was contiguous with the diamondiferous River blow, with a new drilling programme to begin by the end of August.

As announced in May, a total of 71 metres of kimberlite was intersected in 12 percussion holes in the newly-discovered River kimberlite extension in that month, with an additional 19 metres of kimberlitic breccia.

The company said the widest kimberlite down-the-hole intersection was 18 metres.

It said the drilling programme outlined a “significant” swell on the kimberlite dyke, with a minimum strike length of 75 metres.

Samples from those holes were taken at one metre intervals, and 12 of these totalling about 320 kilograms were selected and submitted to an independent processing facility for assessment through screening, dense media separation and hand sorting.

The four diamonds of good colour, clarity and of commercial quality were recovered in that process, along with the “extensive” diamond indicator minerals.

Botswana’s board confirmed a further percussion drilling programme would assess the area between the River and River extension would begin within a month.

“The recovery of high-quality diamonds and so many diamond indicators is very rare,” said chairman John Teeling.

“The diamonds are of good quality. It is unusual to recover diamonds from a small sample of narrow reverse circulation drill holes so it bodes well for the potential of the Thorny River project.

“Even more encouraging is that the size of the kimberlite from which the diamonds were recovered, is itself expanding.”

At 1059 BST, shares in Botswana Diamonds were up 9.52% at 1.15p.