JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed Botswana Diamonds’ shares on the LSE rose by nearly 20% on Tuesday as the company announced it would start large diameter drilling (LDD) at the Zebediela project, in Limpopo, in October.
Zebediela forms part of the Vutomi Joint Venture project, at Frischgewaagt.
Seventeen reverse circulation percussion holes have recently been drilled at Zebediela on the farms Frischgewaagt, Hartbeesfontein and Doornrivier, in Limpopo.
These holes have been drilled to further delineate the extensive kimberlite pipe/fissure system and as pilot holes for the LDD programme.
This, along with previous geological and resource development work, is targeting the declaration of an inferred resource on the project by the end of the year, Botswana Diamonds noted in a market update on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, at Ontevreden – the company's latest kimberlite discovery in the North West – detailed ground geophysics have been completed, producing a minimum anomaly size of 100 m X 70 m.
Samples of the high interest Group 2 kimberlite have been taken for kimberlitic indicator analyses and these are being processed through internal facilities.
The grains will be microprobed at the University of Johannesburg.
"Intensive exploration is ongoing at our two main projects in South Africa, Zebediela and Ontevreden,” Botswana Diamonds chairperson John Teeling noted in the market update.