Diamond giant De Beers spends $100-million a year on exploration activities in the regions where the company expects to have the most impact, and has invested more than this in the past few years to establish a greater presence and activity rate in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gareth Penny, group MD of De Beers, said on Wednesday.
Speaking at a mining indaba in Cape Town, Penny outlined the success De Beers has achieved in laying a foundation for future growth in the company and in producing countries where it operated.
He emphasised that De Beers has remained focused on core assets, and most importantly has successfully cemented and established a large number of partnerships in key diamond-producing countries. These partnerships exist in both exploration and mining, and recently in sorting and marketing to support local diamond beneficiation.
The company currently has partnerships in 59 joint ventures with 42 partner companies worldwide, he said.
“The successes achieved in using both in-house and available technology had resulted in the discovery of another 45 new kimberlites in 2007. These new discoveries form part of the portfolio of properties De Beers has at varying levels of evaluation,” Penny said.
As an example of such a discovery coming to account, he confirmed that the partnership in the Boteti with African Diamonds in Botswana (known as AK06) has submitted an application to mine a 10ha kimberlite, with a grade of 22 carats per hundred tonnes at approximately value of $131 per carat.
In South Africa, De Beers Consolidated Mines — a black economic empowerment (BEE) company since 2006 in partnership with Ponahalo — has succeeded in obtaining its licence conversion to new order mining rights for the Voorspoed mine in the Free State, which is currently under construction, and for the Cullinan diamond mine in Gauteng, he said.
De Beers has two new mines in South Africa, the marine operation using the Peace in Africa mining vessel that was converted and fitted in Cape Town, and the Voorspoed Mine, which is expected to produce a million carats a year once in full production in 2009.
De Beers has also successfully furthered its transformation programme in South Africa by selling a number of mines that no longer have a strategic fit in its portfolio to consortiums with wide BEE, gender and community credentials, he added.
Penny concluded by emphasising that De Beers is today focused on “driving value” for its key stakeholders in all areas in which it operates, from exploration to jewellery, in a way that aligns De Beers’s business priorities with national priorities in the countries where it works. — I-Net Bridge