Diamcor Mining Announces Rough Diamond Tender Results for Q3

Diamcor Mining Inc. (TSXV:DMI) announced the results of the tender and sale of rough diamonds recovered at its Krone-Endora at Venetia project during the third quarter of the year.
As quoted in the press release:

The Company sold 7,771.13 carats of rough diamonds for gross proceeds of USD $1,334,335.41, resulting in an average price of USD $171.70 per carat.  As of the end of the quarter, the Company had approximately 2,465.00 additional carats of rough diamonds, before acid washing, which will be tendered in the coming quarter.  The Project continued to demonstrate potential for the recovery of larger rough diamonds despite limited processing, with 3 individual rough diamonds in the specials category (+10.8 carats), and 35 individual rough diamonds over 5 carats in size recovered and sold during the quarter.  Given the continued price weaknesses in certain categories of rough diamonds during the period, the Company was pleased with the average dollar per carat achieved, which is indicative of the overall quality of the Project’s rough diamonds.

The company also provided an operational update:

The testing, commissioning and calibration of the facilities at the Project continued during the quarter, with an emphasis on refining the Project’s newly expanded facilities to increase processing volumes, increase the efficiencies of the screening of material at the Project’s In-field Dry-Screening plant, and improve the recovery of water from the Project’s settling dams.  Both of the Project’s processing plants are now complete and capable of processing material at significantly higher volumes; however, insufficient recoveries of water from the Project’s settling dams limited the Company’s ability to operate these plants at their designed capacities during the period. The Company’s operational team, in conjunction with various consultants, performed testing on both the Project’s water quality and the material being processed during the quarter, and have identified that the cause of the issue is related to the combined borehole water quality and the excessively suspensive properties of the very fine kimberlitic clay materials of the Project.  The Company has long identified the removal of fines as a key element of the Project, and has expended significant resources and time in the development of the Project’s In-field Dry Screening plant to address this issue.  While those efforts have succeeded in removing a significant amount of the fine material, the current issue is a result of the additional fines which are created after the introduction of water at the Project’s Main Treatment Plant. Testing and initial modelling performed by Vietti Slurrytec in Johannesburg indicate the challenge can be alleviated through water treatment and paste thickening solutions.  As a result, the Company is now finalizing plans to deal with this issue in the near-term.   In the meantime, additional efforts are underway to minimize the negative impact of the issue in the short-term through an additional screening circuit at the In-field Dry-Screening facilities.  These efforts are aimed at further liberating and removing additional fine materials under 1.0mm prior to their delivery to the Project’s Main Treatment plant.  The installation of automated water control valves is also being completed to lower overall water consumption until the noted water treatment and paste thickening solution can be finalized.  The newly expanded facilities are performing well with the issue of water recoveries being the only limiting factor, and the Company is confident that processing volumes can be significantly increased once the noted solution for this issue can be implemented.

Click here to read the full Diamcor Mining Inc. (TSXV:DMI) press release.