More Diamond News!!!!

[Michael Alexander]

A User's Comment:

"Not a day too soon for me
by Former DeB worker | Jul 23 2010
Not a day too soon for me. Glad to see the perfume salesman go. First they sold down the stockpile ($5bill) and awarded themselves gigantic bonuses for a job well done, failed to invest in the mines when they should of, fired most of their very competant people and ended up massively in debt. Great job, Gareth.
Wonder when Brown, Shine and the rest will join him on the dole queue?"

[Michael Alexander]

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe began selling hundreds of thousands of carats of rough diamonds Wednesday that were mined from an area where human rights groups say soldiers killed 200 people, raped women and forced children into hard labor.

Heavily armed police and soldiers guarded top security vaults built at the main Harare airport, where several private jets brought buyers from Israel, India, Lebanon and Russia, officials said.

Abbey Chikane, Zimbabwe monitor of the world diamond control body, certified the diamonds as ready for sale on Wednesday, having said controversy-plagued diamonds from two mines in eastern Zimbabwe met minimum international standards. Some 900,000 carats were put up for auction Wednesday, the mines ministry said.

Investigators for the world's diamond control body said last year that the gems were mined at the Marange diamond fields by virtual slaves who had been told to dig or die, and were smuggled out by soldiers who raped and beat civilians. Yet the Kimberley Process, the diamond body, said those gems didn't qualify as "blood diamonds."

Human Rights Watch says children as young as 10 were forced to work up to 11 hours a day in the Marange diamond fields with no pay or reward. The organization said it had reason to believe that at least 300 children were still working there as of February 2009.

Zimbabwe's mines ministry accuses human rights groups of "peddling falsehoods" over rights violations.

No estimated value was given for stones, although unofficial estimates range up to $2 billion, a massive boost for Zimbabwe's ailing economy and representing about one-third of the southern African country's national debt.

The eastern alluvial diamond fields were uncovered in 2006 and are estimated to be able to meet one-fourth of the world's demand for diamonds. The find is described as the biggest in southern Africa since diamonds were discovered at Kimberley in South Africa a century ago.

[SandyB]

Mad  Bob ,,  Buddy of  our  ex president Thabob Mugabeki ... may his soul rot in hell for continuing  his atrocities ,, further more  they   that  deem the diamonds  as ethically mined  have got holes in their heads ,, this sale will flood the market , stuff up chances of recovery for the companies that   at least employ  folk and prop up economies , there will  be no benefit  to Zim excepting  more cash to prop up and keep in power  the  elite and connected to Bob  lifestyles and yes  slow down the  progress to some sort of democracy in Zim .. Wonder what  the leaders in Nam  will ow say about their "buddy " or will they do the usual  african turn the blind eye number  and instead blame the  misfortune on  the  past  legacy ???

[Michael Alexander]

From Mining Weekly

LINK: http://www.miningweekly.com/article/namdeb-more-than-doubles-first-half-diamond-production-2010-09-03

"Namdeb, the joint-venture (JV) mining company owned by De Beers and the government of Namibia, more than doubled its production during the first half of this year.

Diamond output increased by 106,5% to 795 000 ct in the six months ended June 30, 2010, compared with the 385 000 ct produced in the first half of 2009.

The majority of carats were produced by Namdeb's marine operations, which saw output climb to 538 000 ct in the period under review, compared with the 229 000 ct produced in the first half of the previous year.

The remainder of the production came from the land operations, where output increased to 257 000 ct in the first half of this year, compared with 156 000 ct the year before.

Namdeb, led by MD Inge Zaamwani-Kamwi, reported a strong operational and financial performance, recording a net profit of N$259-million, compared with a loss of N$396-million reported for the first half of 2009.

Namdeb's diamond revenues increased by 22% to N$1,8-billion, compared with revenues of N$1,5-billion the year before.

Zaamwani-Kamwi said that the mining company was looking to the remainder of 2010 with measured optimism.

While the increased demand for diamonds in the first half of the year was encouraging, most restocking activities were now complete and future demand growth would be dependent on increased consumer confidence, especially in emerging markets.

This, at a time, when the economies of important diamond markets, such as the US, Japan and Europe, were still fragile, she noted."

[Michael Alexander]

Namibia's diamond production has doubled in the first eight months of 2010, reaching 1.1 million carats of rough diamonds compared to the 552,000 carats produced in the corresponding period of 2009, news outlets report.

In value, Namibia produced nearly N$3 billion - US$438 million – between January and August 2010, a 26% increase.
In terms of month-to-month gains, August 2010 saw a rise in diamond production of 29.3% from July 2010, and a 59.5% increase over the corresponding month last year.

John Steytler, an economist with Windhoek Bank, noted that the country's increased diamond output was the result of higher demand for diamonds, not new diamond resources.

In August, Namdeb – a diamond company in which the Namibian government owns 50% and De Beers the other 50% - announced that over the next decade it would invest US$1 billion in its diamond mining projects on Namibia's coast.

Namdeb, a 50-50 joint venture between De Beers and the Namibian government, said in August it would invest $1 billion in the next 10 years to extend the life of its diamond mining operations near the coastal town of Oranjemund. Last week, De Beers South Africa Chief Executive Barend Petersen told Reuters that De Beers had abandoned marine diamond mining operations in South Africa and would concentrate its marine operations in Namibian waters.

"It's clearly more advantageous for us to mine the sea waters of Namibia that the South African sea waters," Reuters quoted Petersen saying.

[Michael Alexander]

 

I wonder what percentages of those crews on the ships that have just moved to Namibian waters are actual Namibians....

I wonder how much money DeBeers as a group would have saved had the DeBeers Marine employees been told to reside in Omund and how much money would have been contributed into the local economy thus perhaps saving Oranjemund.....

[Michael Alexander]

From Mining Weekly, LINK: http://www.miningweekly.com/article/de-beers-botswana-investing-r25bn-in-ultra-rich-prince-of-pipes-jwaneng-diamond-mine-2010-10-19

"JWANENG, Botswana  – Botswana's De Beers-State-owned Debswana Diamond Company is investing R25-billion over the next 14 years in the ultra-rich Jwaneng diamond mine.

Debswana-Jwaneng GM Balisi Bonyongo, who addressed a visiting media contingent, says that the investment in the large Cut 8 project will extend the life of this 'Prince of Pipes' to 2024 and yield 102-million diamond carats.

Although the financial cost of completing the Cut 8 cutback is high, Bonyongo is determined to retain the prodigious profit margin of 60% to 70% of this high-value mine, 160 km south-west of Gaborone, on the fringes of the Kgalagadi desert.

"Jwaneng's the most valuable piece of diamond real estate on earth. There's nothing like it on the planet," Debswana mining manager Cut 8 James Kirby tells Mining Weekly Online.

The big Cut 8 project is not a growth project, however, but one aimed at stay-in-business replacement at this superior dollar-per-carat operation that would otherwise have run out of ore by 2017.

The 2 000-employee Jwaneng contributes 70% of Debswana's total diamond revenue and is a crucial contributor to the economy of Botswana as a whole.

While the capital-intensity of the equipment-profuse open-pit mining activity persists, people costs and productivity issues are also rearing their heads, as the large pit descends from the current depth of 330 m to 624 m by 2017.

A prefeasibility study is being undertaken into the next envisaged extension – the Cut 9 project – which is seen as having the potential to extend the life of Jwaneng to 2030 and mine depth to 850 m.

Cut 10 is likely to be the last surface extension, after which the mine may go underground.

Jwaneng also has a 39-million ton tailings dump resource that has a lavish grade of 40 carats per 100 t of dump material.

It is probably the best uncelebrated diamond resource left in the world, Debswana GM projects, planning and technical services Steve Axcell says of Jwaneng's tailings dump.

"It's a little mine on its own," Bonyongo adds.

Jwaneng's recrush plant that currently treats the present tailings from the main treatment plant has not been there since the inception of the mine, so the tailings were deposited before the current, efficient recrush plant was installed.

Debswana is currently studying a modular tailings plant for the treatment of some of its coarse tailings.

Cut 8, the grade of which is 112 carats per 100 t, will keep Jwaneng's production steady at 10-million tons of ore a year through the diamond treatment plant and maintain the mine's status as the world's richest diamond mine by value.

Mining at Jwaneng is done in a series of cutbacks into the area that surrounds the kimberlite pipes. These cutbacks allow mining to continue at increasing depths. Cut 8 is the biggest of the cutbacks to take place at the Jwaneng mine.

Construction began in late 2009 and will have embraced earthworks, civils, piling, structural steel erection and electrical installation by the end of 2011.

The first phase of waste removal began early this year and will last until 2012, when 60-million tons will have been moved. Phase two will begin in 2011 and will ramp up to 110-million tons a year – which is three times the current rate of 40-million tons a year – by the end of 2016.

In total, Cut 8 will remove 658-million tons of overburden to allow the diamond miners to access 91-million tons of ore that will yield the 102-million carats of diamonds.

The waste stripping will directly affect existing parts of the mine, with some exiting buildings and infrastructure having to be moved or modified.

Cut 8 is different from other Jwaneng cuts because the operation will have to move three times more waste to get to the same volume of diamonds.

The number of people and amount of machinery being brought in from outside to remove waste material and mine the kimberlitic deposit is substantially more than previously required.

The fact that the waste profile is so huge will move Jwaneng towards the status of being one of the world's super pits.

Most of the large specialist contractors have mobilised to site and begun earthworks, civils, piling, structural steel and electrical installation.

While the project is 20% complete overall, only 3% of the overburden has been removed to date by JSE-listed contractor Basil Read.

Of the more than 1 600 Cut 8 contractors are on site, 87% are Botswana citizens and of the R1,2-billion contracts awarded, 51% have been to Botswana citizen-owned companies or Botswana based companies.

The output from the world's biggest producer is recovering after falling last year because of the global economic meltdown.

Botswana expects to produce 24-million carats of gems in 2010, 36% more than in 2009, Bloomberg reports.

A Debswana spokesperson reported at the time of going to press that the labour unrest and strike at the Diamond Trading Company (DTC) of Botswana was continuing, but without significantly impacting diamond sorting and marketing.

Management's offer of a 6% increase was met by a demand of 8% from the DTC strikers, who said to number 95% of the DTC staff.

[Michael Alexander]

Wow, that's a ton of moola from a company that had almost nothing left last year.... wish it would come the way of oranejmund...