DiamondCorp plc, which is ramping up to commercial production at its underground Lace diamond mine, in South Africa, is currently commissioning a new conveyor system, which it believes will reduce operating costs.
The 400 t/hr conveyor system to surface will replace the existing dump truck haulage, although the latter will still be used to transport kimberlite from the UK4 production level to the conveyor belt. The conveyor belt capacity has been sized at double the current front end capacity of the processing plant so that future opportunities for increasing the planned underground mining rate are not constrained by an inability to transport ore to surface. Mining is, however, currently constrained to 1.2 Mt/y by the availability of sufficient processing water and the company is introducing measures to reduce water consumption.
Thus far the company has stockpiled 4,250 carats of diamonds from bulk testing and development drives at the Lace mine and management has decided to wait until it has accumulated more diamonds before commencing sales as parcels of less than 10,000 carats tend to attract lower prices.
The mine is expected to be producing around 500,000/y carats by 2019.
DiamondCorp installs new conveyor at Lace to cut costs: DCP