{"id":1109175,"date":"2019-04-04T12:16:14","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T12:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=979858"},"modified":"2019-04-04T12:16:14","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T12:16:14","slug":"botswana-diamonds-finishes-drilling-at-thorny-river-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1109175","title":{"rendered":"Botswana Diamonds finishes drilling at Thorny River project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Botswana Diamonds (LON:BOD)\u00a0said Thursday<\/a> it had concluded drilling on the Frischgewaagt and Hartbeesfontein farms, which form part of its Thorny River diamond project, in South Africa.<\/p>\n

The next step, the miner said, is obtaining\u00a0the necessary regulatory approvals to start the bulk sampling program, which is expected during the second quarter of the year.<\/p>\n

Botswana Diamonds has also finished refurbishing a nearby processing plant to process the bulk sample kimberlite.<\/p>\n

The next step is obtaining\u00a0the necessary regulatory approvals to start the bulk sampling program, expected to happen before the end of June.<\/q><\/p>\n

Early-stage work is also progressing on potential secondary diamond deposits in the project area, with a number of targets identified, the miner confirmed, adding that the nearby and worked-out Marsfontein diamond mine was host to eluvial diamond deposits running at grades of 1,433 carats per hundred tonnes.<\/p>\n

Last year, Botswana completed Thorny River’s technical and economic study, which indicated potentially positive economics using the top end of the 46-74 carats per hundred tonnes grade and $120-220 per carat value ranges.<\/p>\n

Botswana, which was overtaken by Russia as the world\u2019s top diamond producing country in 2014, is grappling with aging mines, as well as power and\u00a0water shortages.<\/p>\n

Still, the nation is home to some of the world\u2019s most\u00a0prolific diamond mines<\/a>, including Lucara Diamond\u2019s (TSX:LUC) Karowe operation, where the\u00a0now-famous Lesedi la Rona<\/a>, the second-largest gem-quality diamond to ever be found, was unearthed in 2016.<\/p>\n

Besides diamonds, the country also produces nickel, copper, coal and iron ore.<\/p>\n

The post Botswana Diamonds finishes drilling at Thorny River project<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The next step is obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals to start the bulk sampling program at the South African project, which is expected during the second quarter of the year.<\/p>\n

The post Botswana Diamonds finishes drilling at Thorny River project<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[798,2253,506,404,369],"tags":[9,105],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109175"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1109175"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1109230,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1109175\/revisions\/1109230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1109175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1109175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1109175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}