South Africa-focused diamond junior Diamcor has completed upgrading its in-field equipment at the Krone-Endora at Venetia diamond project, in Limpopo, in anticipation of a planned move to 24/7 operations as soon as it receives its mining right, which has been applied for and is currently being processed.

Diamcor last week said it had completed the procurement, delivery, construction, and installation of the bulk of the equipment and infrastructure required to significantly expand the quarrying and in-field screening operations at the project.

The company has constructed and installed a new semimobile in-field screening plant at the project, aimed at significantly enhancing and increasing overall processing capacities and operating efficiencies in the long term. With the new expanded and upgraded in-field screening systems complete, the company will now begin testing and processing all mate- rials, including the +10 mm material from the project, which was not previously tested.

In November, the company sold the first tender of 3 579.58 ct of rough diamonds for an average of $142.71/ct – the diamonds were recovered during the ongoing testing and commissioning exercises at the project. However, the bulk of the diamonds was from material only in the +1 mm- to –10 mm-size fractions of the lower-grade surface to 10 m depths of the K1 area of the project. Despite the fact no mate- rial above 10 mm in size had yet been processed, 362 individual rough diamonds with a combined weight of 659.33 ct were recorded at 1 ct in size or larger.

The installation of a large mobile barrel screen and feed bid, with a throughput capacity of up to 800 t/h, would allow material to be dumped directly from mining trucks into the system without additional handling. This barrel screen was expected to significantly enhance the liberation of diamonds.

The company also modified its Terex H6302 power screen to increase throughput capacities and enable the classification of material in conjunction with the new equipment added to the in-field screening process.

The upgrades also included installation of a rotary dry-scrubbing unit to better liberate material in the –28 mm- to +5 mm-size fractions and the construction of a large, three-storey support structure, as well as the installation of a new high-capacity Dabmar Bivitec non-blinding double-deck screening unit to provide increased capacities and efficiencies in the removal of –1.2 mm fines material.

The company also commissioned an additional 500 kVa diesel generator to power the in-field screening plant. Several large conveyor systems to transport materials between the various in-field screening plant components were also added, as well as several new pieces of Volvo heavy equipment

Following completion of the final commissioning and testing exercises, the company planned to focus on achieving staged monthly operational increases through a move to trial mining to provide the company with cash flow.

In conjunction with the full-scale mining exercises, the company would also carry out a bulk sampling programme on new areas of the project not accounted for in the initial National Instrument 43-101 technical report filed by the company as part of the acquisition process.