Botswana Diamonds enters data licence deal with Petra

The AIM-traded firm was awarded a prospecting licence over the Reivilo kimberlite cluster on 6 September.

It said the data licence agreement would grant Petra a 3% royalty on any production revenue generated from Reivilo, in return for access to all of the Petra Diamonds data accumulated during its work on the licence.

Botswana said it would review the data before finalising its own exploration programme.

Previous exploration work conducted by Petra on Reivilo ground delineated a cluster of three kimberlite pipes, with sizes of 3.1 hectares, 1.7 hectares and 0.9 hectares, all within a 250-metre radius.

Samples of the drilling core produced G10 and eclogitic garnets, which the board described as “the optimal indicators” for diamondiferous kimberlites.

Reivilo is located in the Barkley West area of South Africa, 110 kilometres from the active Finsch diamond mine.

“Once Petra gave up the Reivilo ground as part of their restructuring we applied,” said chairman John Teeling.

“Having won the licence, we then negotiated with Petra to obtain their exploration data.

“This is the agreement announced today. Having access to this information will save Botswana Diamonds time and money.”

At 1402 BST, shares in Botswana Diamonds were down 0.56% at 0.9p.

Reporting by Josh White at Sharecast.com.