Name and Location
Lace diamond mine development project, Free State, South Africa.

Client
DiamondCorp.

Project Description
The 1.2-million-ton-a-year Lace mine is expected to produce more than 500 000 ct/y of diamonds at peak production.

The Main pipe at the Lace mine contains 33.1-million tons of kimberlite, indicated and inferred to a depth of 855 m, containing an estimated 13.4-million carats in both resource categories, at an average grade of 40.1 carats per hundred tons.

The resource has an in-ground value of more than $2-billion at $160/ct.

The deposit will be mined through block-cave mining, with three caves planned over the 25-year life-of-mine (LoM) on the 47, 67 and 85 levels, at depths of 470 m, 670 m and 850 m respectively.

The kimberlite is open at depth and also contains a significant bulge between 250 m and 360 m depth, with the potential to add additional tonnage and diamonds not currently included in the resource statement.

Value
The total development cost of the project, including working capital and a 15% contingency on capital and development costs, is estimated at R384-million.

The peak funding requirement of R286-million is expected in April 2015, when blasting of the slot drive and doming starts to deliver significant tonnage of kimberlite.

The costs of establishing the block cave thereafter are offset by revenues from the sale of diamonds recovered from kimberlite mined during development.

Duration
The first diamonds from development are expected to be recovered in the third quarter of 2014.

Latest Developments
Development activities over the next four months will include:
• Excavation of a new 66 000 bank cubic metre boxcut, providing the surface entrance to the twin conveyor belt and men and materials declines for LoM.
• Completion of a vent raise from the 16 level to provide sufficient interim ventilation for continuous blasting decline development until LOM vent shafts are raise bored.
• Installation of a tipping arrangement on the 24 level to allow loading of waste generated from the twin decline development down to the 47 level. Until 2.6 km of conveyors are installed, development waste will be hauled out of the mine by low profile dump trucks.
• Completion of the rebuilding of another underground loader and requiring two dump trucks to meet the scheduled development ramp-up.
• Essential upgrades to the dense media separation plant to alleviate front-end bottlenecks in the recrush circuit at full-scale production. Completion of these upgrades will also allow tailings retreatment to restart.
• Completion of detailed design drawings for the underground conveyor belts.
• Definition drilling of the bulge from within the kimberlite bulk sampling area on the 260 m level.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
DiamondCorp, tel +44 20 3151 0970, fax +44 20 3151 0971 or email info@diamondcorp.plc.uk.