{"id":1137917,"date":"2019-09-12T09:12:41","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T14:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1001732"},"modified":"2019-09-12T09:12:41","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T14:12:41","slug":"south-africa-grants-botswana-diamonds-critical-environmental-authorization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1137917","title":{"rendered":"South Africa grants Botswana Diamonds \u2018critical\u2019 environmental authorization"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Botswana Diamonds (LON:BOD) <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/polaris.brighterir.com\/public\/botswana_diamonds\/news\/rns\/story\/xo03jdx\" >said Thursday<\/a> that\u00a0it had received a \u201ccritical\u201d environmental\u00a0authorization for diamond-bearing gravels from the Marsfontein mine, next to the company&#8217;s own Thorny River project, in South Africa.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The company noted the permission, granted to its associated firm Vutomi, was a critical step towards obtaining a mining permit, which it expected to receive shortly.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We believe the mine gravels<br \/>\nand unprocessed stockpiles around the Marsfontein mine contain commercial<br \/>\ngrades of diamonds,\u201d chairman John Teeling said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Botswana Diamonds has identified<br \/>\npotential partners to process the gravels and stockpiles. <\/p>\n<p>The company, which has long believed there should be high grade kimberlite pipes other than the Marsfontein mine in the Thorny River area, said it expected mobilization to begin within six weeks.<\/p>\n<p>Diamond miners are&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/mining.com\/web\/hunt-canadas-vast-diamond-riches-reaching-end\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">struggling across the board<\/a>, especially those producing<br \/>\ncheaper and smaller stones where there is too much supply.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Buyers, those that polish and cut<br \/>\ndiamonds for retailers, have been hit this year by lower prices and tighter<br \/>\ncredit, prompting them to delay purchases. Tiffany\u2019s reported in August<br \/>\na&nbsp;3% decline in like-for-like sales, while shares in Signet, the world\u2019s largest<br \/>\nretailer of diamond jewellery, have lost more than 60% of their value this<br \/>\nyear.<\/p>\n<p>De Beers, the world\u2019s top diamond<br \/>\nproducer by value, has responded by axing production \u2014 with a target of 31<br \/>\nmillion carats this year compared with 35.3 million in 2018. It has also<br \/>\nannounced it would spend more on marketing.<\/p>\n<p>At the latest sale, the<br \/>\ncompany&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/de-beers-steps-up-plans-to-boost-sales-to-let-buyers-reject-up-50-of-small-diamonds\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">increased the amount of stones buyers were allowed to reject<\/a>&nbsp;in<br \/>\neach lot purchased from 10% to 20%, according to people familiar with the<br \/>\nauction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Permission covers diamond-bearing gravels at the Marsfontein mine, which is next to the company&#8217;s own Thorny River project.<\/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":[369],"tags":[43],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137917"}],"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=1137917"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1137970,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137917\/revisions\/1137970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1137917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1137917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1137917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}