On the heels of its announcement that open pit mining operations had commenced at its Lerala Diamond Mine in Botswana a few days ago, Kimberley Diamonds Ltd (KDL) yesterday proclaimed that production too has started at the mine. “This is the culmination of the nine month project to upgrade and re-commission the plant which commenced in August 2015,” the Company stated. “The first diamond sales are currently expected in June 2016.”

Last year, on July 20, 2015, KDL had entered into a turnkey contract with Consulmet (Pty) Limited (Consulmet), for modifications to the plant at Lerala, “to allow the plant to reliably treat and recover diamonds at a nominal rate of 200 tonnes per hour”.

KDL in its latest statement revealed that ore processing -- which commenced recently -- will be ramped up to full production levels over the next several weeks. “During this ramp up phase, the plant process is being balanced to optimise recovery efficiency and plant throughput,” KDL said.

The Company also stated   that over the last few months it had been recruiting and training personnel to carry out operations at the plant, who worked together with Consulmet specialists to assist in the commissioning of the plant. The plant will now be geared up by the team to run 24/7 continuous operations by the next week.

Calling it an “exciting milestone” for the Company,   KDL said that over the last few weeks, in the final run up to the start of production, it has been “all hands on deck” with most of the executive management team on site to assist. 

Earlier in a statement released on April 29, 2016, KDL providing a financial update had declared that as at March 31, 2016 the Company a cash position of AU$ 0.944M and debt of AU$ 12.730M. “This total debt amount includes the AU$ 1.045M (US$ 0.755M) pre-payment received for diamonds to be supplied to Restwell Investments Pty Ltd (Restwell) after production and diamond sales commence,” the Company  had reported. “KDL has undertaken a number of steps during Q3 2016 to raise the additional funds required to complete the re-commissioning and re-open the Lerala Diamond Mine.”