Gaborone: Debswana, a joint venture company between De Beers and Botswana government, has begun processing ore from the $3 billion expansion of its Jwaneng diamond mine, known as Cut 8.
Reuters quoted company managing director Balisi Bonyongo as saying that 88 percent of an estimated 500 million tonnes of waste above diamond bearing ore had been stripped away by the end of last month.
"Cut 8 is on track to meet its objectives and ore from the mine expansion project is now being delivered to the main treatment plant," he said.
The Cut 8 project, which commenced in 2010, was meant to uncover 100 million carats of diamonds and extend the life of the world's richest diamond mine to 2024, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, Bonyongo said Debswana would close its 42-year-old Letlhakane diamond mine this year. It would be replaced by a tailings plant, which was expected to be commissioned before June.
"The Letlhakane mine has come to the end of its life span. We have invested 2.1 billion pula into a tailings plant which is expected to mine about 800,000 carats over 20 years from the dumps," he said.
Debswana was expected to produce about 20.5 million carats this year, or slightly more. Anglo American said early this week that Debswana's year-on-year production dropped by a marginal 3 percent to 5.2 million carats in the first quarter of 2017.
