Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Debswana starts processing Cut 8 ore

Botswana's Debswana Diamond Company has started processing ore from the $3-billion expansion of its Jwaneng diamond mine, known as Cut 8.
88% of an estimated 500-million tonnes of waste above diamond bearing ore had been stripped away by the end of March. Debswana, jointly owned by Botswana's government and De Beers is expected to produce about 20.5-million carats this year.
Figures by Anglo American, which owns 85% of DeBeers, show that Debswana's production dropped slightly to 5.2-million carats in the first quarter of 2017 compared with the same period in 2016. Cut 8 will extend Jwaneng's life span by seven years to 2024. Jwaneng is the largest producing mine in the world by value. In 2015, it produced more than 11 million carats, with a total value of over $2.3 billion.

Cut-8 will bring the depth of the mine to 850 meters and produce an open pit that will be 2.7 km long and 1.8 km wide. This will put it in the category of a global ‘super-pit’, among the largest in the world for any mining operation.