Ghagoo Diamond Mine

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This is the Ghagoo diamond mine which is 100% owned by Gem Diamonds wholly owned subsidiary, Gem Diamonds Botswana, which holds a 25-year mining licence and bought Gope Exploration Company, which owned the Gope Deposit in 2007.. The mine was formerly known as the Gope Mine and 'Ghaghoo' is the name of a locally abundant camel thorn acacia tree, and is the name historically used by locals to refer to the area before geological exploration teams arrived over thirty years ago and called the area 'Gope' which means 'nowhere'.

As of January 2013, the Ghaghoo mine was estimated to contain probable reserves of 7.5 million tonnes of ore graded at 27.81ct/100t. It is estimated to contain 2.08 million carats of diamonds. Indicated and inferred diamond resources were estimated at 108.2 million tonnes of ore graded at 18.98ct/100t containing 20.53 million carats of diamonds.

The deposit is part of the Kalahari formation, filled with calcified and silicified sands up to a depth of 25m. Beyond the 25m level, the wall rocks of the Gope Kimberlite consist of Karoo basalt to 391m and Ntane sandstone formation from 391m to an unconfirmed depth. The Ntane formation comprises monotonous pink, buff and white grained sandstones with layers of mudstone and siltstone. The orebody consists of numerous basalt breccia layers within the core, comprising altered talus slope deposits interbedded with pyroclastic kimberlite.

Mining at the underground Ghaghoo diamond mine will be conducted in three stages. The first stage will involve mining using sub level cave (SLC) method by developing horizontal and parallel tunnels through the ore body. Ore will be extracted using drilling and blasting, and then loaded into the production tunnels using drill rigs and load haul dumpers. The dump trucks will transport the ore to surface via the decline. The second and third stages will use SLC and block cave mining methods. The processing facility comprises a primary crusher with a capacity of 100t/h, an autogenous milling and screening section, a 65t/h dense media separation (DMS) module and a recovery section that uses grease belt and wet X-ray machines.