Gibb River Diamonds Limited (GIB) – earlier POZ Minerals Limited – has announced that the Company’s Mining Proposal and Project Management Plan for the Blina Diamond Project situated in the Ellendale Diamond Province of Western Australia’s Kimberley Region was cleared by the Department of Mines, Industry, Regulation and Safety (DMIRS). Following this, the Company declared the project ‘shovel ready’.

The Company also made a bid for the former Ellendale Diamond Mine lease, which is presently under Government control. The bid is currently under consideration by the DMIRS.

GIB further announced that its Sortex diamond recovery machine is ready. “The plant has been tested with tracer beads and is fully operational,” the Company stated.

The Blina Diamond Project includes four granted mining leases and a number of exploration licences within a 436 sq km area.

“A diamond bearing alluvial palaeochannel named Terrace 5 extends over some 40 km of the GIB project area, with channel widths of 200m and 500m,” said GIB. “The largest   diamond recovered to date from Terrace 5 weighed 8.43 carats, with high quality stones larger than two carats common, a significant number of the diamonds are Fancy Yellows.”

The Company has both, defined high grade targets; and has also discovered “extensive areas of unsampled, shallow highly prospective alluvial gravels which also require testing”, GIB reported.

GIB now has a programme in place to conduct systematic bulk sampling of the prospective gravels. 

GIB Executive Chairman Jim Richards commented: “The core focus of Gibb River Diamonds is to initiate bulk sampling and trial mining operations at the Blina Diamond Project in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. With permitting to mine now in place, this next exciting phase pf operations is now scheduled to commence at the end of the wet season early next year.”

Pic Cap: Blina Terrace 5 diamonds

Pic Courtesy: Gibb River Diamonds Limited / formerly POZ Minerals Limited