Current Edition >> Archives Section >> Leading Stories >> 16-30 June 2005
• Johann Dannhauser
Following the termination in 2005 of their decades-long diamond operations at Koffiefontein and the resultant sale of the mine, De Beers Consolidate Mines (DBCM) is reportedly in an advanced stage with its R1,1 billion Voorspoed project 35 km north of Kroonstad.
This project is now only awaiting a new mining licence from the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME), having submitted its final application documentation in May 2006.
Voorspoed would be DBCM's largest project in South Africa since its flagship Venetia was commissioned in the Limpopo province in the 1980s – though of a far more modest nature. The Voorspoed deposit is a 12,5-ha diamond-bearing kimberlite pipe, potentially able to yield some 900 000 carats a year. Voorspoed would be similar in size to Letlhakane, Debswana's (De Beer's partnership with the government of Botswana) second-smallest diamond-mine in Botswana after Daamtsha.
It is, however, not the group's first attempt at mining Voorspoed, which was discovered in 1906 and purchased by De Beers in 1912. Its extremely hard kimberlite could not be processed with the crushing technology of the time, but recent additional work and advances in crusher technology made it feasible once more.
Meanwhile, according the DME's Minerals Bureau Bulletin South Africa's diamond production reached a new record level of 15,8-million carats in 2005. This year-on-year increase of 9,3% and the increase in rough-diamond prices pushed the value of last year's production to some $1,7-billion. Of this figure, DBCM as the largest producer of diamonds in South Africa, accounted for about 97%.
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