AFRICA SPECIAL — Botswana Diamondfields bids for concessions

Botswana Diamondfields (BWD-V) has enlisted arm’s-length partners (with which it has no relationship) to secure for the company a majority interest in a diamond concession in southern Africa.

If their bid is successful, the company’s partners will be paid for their services. As an advance, Botswana Diamondfields has loaned the partners US$1.6 million.

Botswana Diamondfields has released neither the name of its partners, the amount they will be paid, nor the location of the diamond concession.

Meanwhile, safety considerations have forced Botswana Diamondfields to suspend the program to recover the bodies of 16 men killed in an accident at the Rovic diamond mine in South Africa.

On Nov. 27, 1996, heavy rains caused an old part of the mine to collapse.

Only four bodies had been recovered by presstime, but a second inflow of mud has convinced the company, its consultants and the South African government that more lives would be in danger if recovery attempts were to continue.

Botswana Diamondfields plans to proceed with a feasibility study on a plan to gain access to diamondiferous kimberlite below the present mining level.

Provisions will be made for the dewatering and cleaning of existing workings.

Treatment of coarse plant tailings in large surface stockpiles will be undertaken to mitigate the production standstill. Consideration will also be given to a plan to retreat tailings from the early years of the mine, which are known to contain diamonds.

Officials of Botswana Diamondfields say the new Rovic mine will process kimberlite reserves in the order of 5 million tonnes “in optimized conditions of safety, size and cost.”