Drilling begins on Botswana Diamonds projects in South Africa

Botswana Diamonds announced on Wednesday that drilling has started on its Thorny River and Marsfontein project areas in South Africa.

The AIM-traded firm said the multi-hole drilling programme had started on four target areas identified as high interest in the recent detailed ground geophysics survey.

It said those target areas included a potential kimberlite ‘blow’ of up to 0.25 hectares, and other expansions in the widths, or ‘swells’, of the dyke system of up to 10 metres, as opposed to the average one metre.

“The most widely known blow in the project area is Marsfontein, which was 0.4 hectares,” the board said in its statement.

“Marsfontein was mined by De Beers and SouthernEra, and it achieved a return of development capital in under four days.”

Botswana Diamonds said the dyke system, which extended for 18 kilometres over Thorny River from Klipspringer Mine in the west through Marsfontein to Doornrivier in the east, had been demonstrated as having consistent geology and economics.

“The ground geophysics and drilling programmes are focused on identifying kimberlite volumes to support further development of the property.”

At 1224 GMT, shares in Botswana Diamonds were up 1.23% at 0.78p.