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Botswana
Letlhakane Mine (Orapa Operation)

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 Location:
15 km SE from Letlhakane, Botswana

  Address:
Private Bag 001
Orapa
Botswana
Phone  ...  Subscription required
Fax+ 267-297-0243
WebsiteWeb
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  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
  • Processing
  • Production
  • Reserves
  • Personnel
  • Filings & News

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Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeOpen Pit
Commodities
  • Diamond
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Processing
  • Dense media separation
  • X-Ray sorting
Mine Life22 years (as of Jan 1, 2019)


Owners & OPERATOR

Source:
CompanyInterestOwnership
De Beers Group Company 50 % Indirect
Government of the Republic of Botswana (GRB) 50 % Indirect
Debswana Diamond Company (Pty) Ltd (operator) 100 % Direct
Anglo American owns 85% of De Beers Group, the world's leading diamond company. The remaining 15% is owned by the Government of the Republic of Botswana (GRB). De Beers Group and its partners produce around one third of the world's rough diamonds, by value.

Debswana is a joint venture between the government of Botswana and the South African diamond company De Beers; each party owns 50% of the company.

Deposit Type

  • Kimberlite
  • Tailings


Summary:

The Letlhakane mine consists of two kimberlite pipes and is one of a cluster of three kimberlite mines in central Botswana. Core logging and additional petrographic study classifies this deposit as a Group I, opaque-mineral and perovskite -rich altered probable monticellite kimberlite. Most of the kimberlite examined is massive volcaniclastic kimberlite, whilst rare layered volcaniclastic and magmatic kimberlite is also present.

Spinels are a ubiquitous component of kimberlites and their compositions are frequently used as petrogenetic indicators. The compositions of Letlhakane groundmass spinels will be used to fingerprint kimberlite facies by identifying the presence of several discrete batches of magma with unique evolution trends. The spinels are excellent indicators of these trends and are apparently immune to the affects of hydrothermal and subsequent alteration. Analysis has revealed that the Letlhakane spinel are unusually titanium-rich (TiO2 from 4.93 to 17.91 wt%), which correlates with other titanium-rich textural indicators such as the presence of prograde overgrowths of sphene around atolled-textured spinels and an unusually high proportion of perovskite to spinel of around 10:1, which is the inverse of a typical kimberlite.


Mining Methods

  • Truck & Shovel / Loader


Summary:

Letlhakane and Damtshaa Mines, which are open-pit operations using traditional truck and shovel methods, and clustered in a radius of under 25km in the Central District of Botswana.


Crushing and Grinding


Processing

  • Dense media separation
  • X-Ray sorting

Source: Subscription required

Summary:

The Letlhakane mine has no processing facilities. Therefore, the diamond ore produced at Letlhakane is processed at a processing plant at its sister mine, Orapa diamond mine, about 50 km away.

The tonnes mined from A/K1 pit feed two processing plants, Orapa 1 and Orapa 2. The concept of diamond processing, entails stages of comminution to progressively reduce the particle size of the ore, and screen it into a feed size envelope desirable for the concentration process. A major outcome of the comminution process is diamond liberation; a process whereby the locked-up stones are released from the host rocks. Once the diamonds are liberated, they can now be separated from the gangue material into a concentrate by the Dense Medium Separation process.

Liberation is the fundamental activity of any diamond processing operation. The state of liberation in a plant, while not measurable, is diagnosed by the level of grind (fracture) completed by the plant at any given sub-sta ........


Production:

CommodityUnits2017201620152014
Diamond carats 607,000595,000506,000548,000
All production numbers are expressed as mineral.

Operational Metrics:

Metrics2015
Total tonnes mined 2,162,664 t
Tonnes processed 2,386,741 t

Reserves at December 31, 2019:

CategoryOreTypeTonnage CommodityGradeContained carats
Probable Tailings 29.2 Mt Diamond 22.5 cpht 6.6 M carats
Indicated In-Situ (OP) 22.3 Mt Diamond 31.7 cpht 7.1 M carats
Indicated Tailings Mt Diamond 5442.1 cpht 1 M carats
Inferred In-Situ (OP) 18.7 Mt Diamond 27.8 cpht 5.2 M carats
Inferred Tailings 56 Mt Diamond 26.6 cpht 14.9 M carats


Heavy Mobile Equipment:

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required May 12, 2020
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required May 12, 2020
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required May 12, 2020
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required May 12, 2020
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Staff:

EmployeesContractorsTotal WorkforceYear
Subscription required Subscription required Subscription required 2018
Subscription required 2015

Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2018
................................... Subscription required 2018
................................... Subscription required 2018
Annual Report 2017
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2017
Annual Report 2016
Corporate Presentation 2016
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2016
Annual Report 2015
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2015
Other 2013
Corporate Presentation 2012
Press Release 2005
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