Canada-headquartered diamond mining company Diamcor Mining says it will be proceeding with an extensive drilling and bulk sampling programme over the greater portions of its Krone-Endora at Venetia diamond mine project, in South Africa.

These efforts will be aimed at further identifying and locating additional material which is known to have shifted and eroded from the adjacent Venetia diamond mine that is owned and operated by De Beers.

Diamcor says its establishment of infrastructure, two large processing plants, heavy equipment and the extensive large-scale trial mining exercises completed to date in the initial area of 657 ha of the project’s total 5 888 ha, enabled it to refine unique approaches to mining using advanced technology and techniques to extract diamonds from the project in a safe, efficient and environmentally responsible manner.

The previous establishment of these collective items will allow Diamcor to now advance these additional drilling and bulk sampling efforts in a very cost-effective and efficient manner, the company adds.

“The considerable effort to date now allows us to proceed with this drilling and bulk sampling on the greater areas of the project.

“The knowledge gained from previous trial-mining and the sale of rough diamonds, along with recent modelling and initial input of some of the industry’s most respected geological experts, all point to the potential to identify significant additional material from the known shift and erosion off of Venetia,” says CEO Dean Taylor.

The initial trial-mining efforts undertaken to date have provided the company with a better understanding of the shift and erosion of the estimated 1 000 vertical meters of material from the Venetia diamond mine kimberlite clusters that are known to have been displaced in the direction of Diamcor’s Krone and Endora properties.

Both properties are co-located with De Beers' Venetia mine.

Trial mining exercises are expected to continue on portions of the initial area in conjunction with the additional drilling and bulk sampling exercises, with both items serving to further advance the recommended work programmes from the project’s initial National Instrument 43-101 disclosure.