JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed Stellar Diamonds has paid the Sierra Leone Environmental Agency $150 240 for an environmental licence for its Tongo project.
The payment of the environmental licence fee is an important step in Stellar being issued the large-scale mining licence for the Tongo project.
The mining licence has been approved by the Minerals Advisory Board subject to the issuing of the environmental licence. Once the environmental licence has been issued, the National Minerals Agency will draw up the Tongo mining licence for consideration.
Meanwhile, Stellar has agreed with diamond junior Octea Mining to extend the longstop dates of their agreements to October 31.
Stellar and Octea plan to combine their adjacent Tongo and Tonguma diamondiferous kimberlite dyke properties into one project.
An independent preliminary economic assessment for the combined mining project has demonstrated a financially robust and high-margin project, with a 21-year mine life.
The current underground mine plan is configured as a series of declines from surface at Kundu, Lando and Tongo.
“The longstop date of the agreements with Octea has been extended to October 31, as we continue to progress potential project funding and complete other certain conditions precedent to the agreements,” CEO Karl Smithson said in a statement on Monday.