Drilling commences on Thorny River

RNS Number : 2782K

Botswana Diamonds PLC

01 September 2021

 

1^st September 2021

Botswana Diamonds PLC

("Botswana Diamonds" or the "Company")

Drilling commences on Thorny River

Eight-hole drilling programme between the two recently discovered blows

Botswana Diamonds ('BOD'), the AIM and BSE listed diamond explorer, is pleased to announce that drilling has commenced on its Thorny River project in South Africa.

A total of eight reverse circulation drill holes are planned to drill in-between the recently discovered River and River Extension blows.  The drilling programme is expected to take no more than two weeks.

The River Blow was discovered by the company in November 2020 and covered a modelled surface area of 80x40m.  The River Extension blow which is less than 100m east of the River Blow was discovered by the company in April 2021.  Select drill samples from both drilling campaigns were treated at an independent laboratory where abundant kimberlitic indicators were recovered along with eleven diamonds.

For context, the discoveries at Thorny River are within the Zebediela kimberlite field.  This field chiefly consists of a series of consistently diamondiferous kimberlite dykes with a strike length of 20-km.  On this dyke, there are number of blows being Kudu, Sugarbird, Sugarbird Pass (all part of the Klipspringer diamond mine) and Marsfontein.  The four blows have been mined-out, with the latter being mined by a De Beers / SouthernEra joint venture with a payback of three and a half days.  Marsfontein is 3.5 km west and on strike from the Company's discoveries.

The objective of the exploration programme in the Thorny River project area is to discover additional blows and the objective of this specific drilling programme is to determine the extent of the connection between the two recently discovered blows.

John Teeling, Chairman, commented, "This is an important step in our drive to establish a commercial diamond orebody at Thorny River. We are very hopeful that these eight holes will confirm that the two blows, River and River extension are in fact one orebody".

This release has been approved by James Campbell, Managing Director of Botswana Diamonds plc, a qualified geologist (Pr.Sci.Nat), a Member of the Geological Society of South Africa, a Fellow of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Metals and Mining (UK) and with over 35-years' experience in the diamond sector.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 as it forms part of UK Domestic Law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.

The pers on who arranged the release of this announcement on behalf of the Company was James Campbell.

A copy of this announcement is available on the Company's website, at www.botswanadiamonds.co.uk

Enquiries:

Botswana Diamonds PLC John Teeling, Chairman James Campbell, Managing Director Jim Finn, Director	[phone] [phone] [phone]
Beaumont Cornish - Nominated Adviser  Michael Cornish Roland Cornish	[phone]
Beaumont Cornish Limited - Broker  Roland Cornish Felicity Geidt	[phone]
First Equity Limited -  Joint Broker  Jason Robertson	[phone]
Blytheweigh - PR Megan Ray Rachael Brooks Said Izagaren Naomi Holmes	[phone] [phone] [phone] [phone] [phone]
Teneo Luke Hogg Alan Tyrrell Ross Murphy	[phone] [phone] [phone]

www.botswanadiamonds.co.uk

ENDS

 

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