The kimberlite occurrences in the Limpopo Belt, including the Venetia cluster, follow a strong eastnortheast trend through the Belt. Watkeys used aerial photograph interpretations to show the strong association of the Venetia and Beit Bridge kimberlites with east-northeast striking lineations. The actual position of the Venetia pipes is related by Watkeys(1981) to a fracture and fault striking north and northeast respectively from an extension of the northwest-trending Siloam fault zone. These faults, and the nearby intersection of the east-northeast striking Dowe-Tokwe fault with the Siloam fault zone, potentially provided a crustal opening for ascent of the kimberlite magma. Watkeys (1981) also drew attention to the northwest trend of the Venetia K1, K2 and K3 pipes.

The Venetia kimberlite pipes are located within the Limpopo mobile belt, which is an ancient collision zone of the Kaapvaal and Zimbabwe craton. At the present erosion level the country rock in the Venetia area appears as a complex arrangement of Proterozoic gneisses, amphibolites and metasediments of the Limpopo Group. In the Venetia area, the Limpopo Group is believed to have a thickness of about 10km and is overthrust onto Archean rocks of the Zimbabwean craton.

The Venetia Mine is an open pit operation, mining a diamond bearing kimberlite cluster consisting of a series of pipes and dykes with a vertical displacement. This cluster consists of three kimberlite ore bodies namely K1, K2 and K3 and various satellite ore bodies. The open pit will be mined to a depth of approximately 450m. Waste rock is removed and deposited by means of drill, blast, load and haul technology.

From a depth of below 450m, open pit mining becomes less economical due to the amount of waste rock to be removed. As part of Venetia Mine’s long term strategy, the mine intends to exploit resources deeper than the current open pit horizons by changing the current mining method from an open pit mining process to an underground mining process, utilising caving mining methodologies.

The ore is hauled to the main treatment plant where it is processed and diamonds are liberated through crushing, scrubbing, screening, dense media separation and x-ray processes. The main treatment plant produces and deposits two major waste streams, namely course and fine tailings. Venetia Mine activities also include all related engineering support services and infrastructure.