JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – London Aim- and Botswana-listed diamond exploration company Botswana Diamonds has been granted a five-year prospecting licence on ground containing a cluster of kimberlites in South Africa.

Involved is the Reivilo cluster of three kimberlite pipes, with sizes of 3.1 ha, 1.7 ha and 0.9 ha, all within a 250-m radius.

Samples of the drilling core produced G10 and eclogitic garnets, which are the optimal indicators for diamondiferous kimberlites.

Samples have been taken for microdiamond analyses.  As reported earlier by Mining Weekly, Botswana Diamonds obtained a databank on Reivilo from London-listed Petra Diamonds in return for a royalty.

In addition, Siseko Minerals, in which Botswana Diamonds holds 51.7% of the shares, has increased its stake in the Maibwe joint venture in Botswana from 29% to 50%.

A cluster of four diamond-bearing kimberlite pipes on PL186 has been discovered, with surface sizes of 5 ha, 6 ha, 2 ha and 1 ha respectively. Significant quantities of microdiamonds have been found in one of these pipes.

“We’ve got two major project areas. The one is in South Africa, in the Northern Cape, and I hope to be able to go into the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy conference in a couple of weeks to talk about this.

“This is the Reivilo cluster of kimberlites, which, interestingly, if you look in the historical literature, very, very little is spoken about it, and that’s quite rare for a kimberlite or diamond province in the world,” Botswana Diamonds CEO James Campbell told last week’s Junior Indaba.

“It’s five kimberlites, near surface, but need a fair amount of work, but they are diamondiferous.

“Then, in Botswana, in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, we have increased our stake in the Maibwe joint venture, which we’ve bought out from BCL, and one of those kimberlites had very significant quantities of microdiamonds, so that is also work in progress and this is where we are looking at resource definition,” he added.