LONDON (Alliance News) - Botswana Diamonds PLC on Wednesday said exploration has begun on its licenses in Botswana, starting on licenses within the Orapa region before moving on to licenses within the Gope area.
The exploration is being led by Botswana Diamonds' 50:50 joint venture partner, Russian mining group Alrosa, and geologists have already started sampling activities on licenses PL260 and PL210.
PL260 covers a 25 square foot area between the Karowe and Orapa diamond mines and contains three kimberlites that are known to contain diamonds. A soil sampling geophysics, diamond drilling and reverse circulation wide diameter drill programme is ongoing and will continue on the block until the end of April.
The holes that will be drilled have a target depth of 300 metres, and a 90-tonne bulk sample will be collected and then analysed at a sampling plant, Botswana Diamonds said.
A second team has been deployed to the other licence, PL210, where two drill holes were completed during 2015. Targeted geophysics and soil sampling are designed to select drill sites for diamond drilling, which will commence in early April.
After that work is completed, exploration work will move to the Gope region to focus on licenses PLC135, PL136 and PL137, where anomalies were confirmed during 2015.
Botswana Diamonds shares were down 5.1% to 0.83 pence per share on Wednesday morning.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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Botswana Diam (BOD)