Firestone Diamonds Plc is upbeat that it will get a secondary listing on the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) during this quarter as it indicated that its total regional production will top one million carats in the next three years.
The London AIM listed┬á junior┬á miner said┬á in its half year results to December 31, 2011 its listing on BSE is “expected to take place in Q 2 2011” following┬á the delay that were occasioned by the┬ánew stock exchange regulations.
The new appointed Chief Executive Officer, Tim Wilkes, who headed Botswana operations before further indicated that company is undergoing major transformation that will enable it to play crucial role in the global diamond production.
“The prospects for Firestone have been transformed since July 2010. We believe that the company is very well positioned to become a significant diamond producer in 2011 and to reach its target of producing 1 million carats per annum by 2014,” the company said in a statement released last week.
Firestone has a 75 percent interest in Liqhobong mine in Lesotho where a resource of 91 million tonnes at an average grade of 34 carats per hundred tones and containing 31 million carats. The total value of the mine is US $ 3 billion.
The company acquired asset from Kopane Diamond Development Plc.
It said the Liqhobong mine grade quality is in line company expectations and it is working on plans to triple production capacity at the mine.
Some of the developments the company talked about include the commencement of production at BK 11 early last year.
BK 11 commenced production last year and managed 2,162 carats at an average price of US $ 177 per carat.
BK 11 is run under┬á Monak Ventures ÔÇö┬á is near Orapa mine just┬á within the same vicinity to┬á African Diamonds’ AK 6ÔÇöin an area that has won the label of being the best diamond address in the world.
There are already three existing diamond mines in the areaÔÇöall owned and run by Debswana. The mines are; Damtshaa, Letlhakane and Orapa while┬áLucara Diamond is working on plans to open its AK 6 mine┬álate this year.
According to the terms of the mining licence the company is expected to sell its diamonds within Botswana through an open tender process┬áin a bid to give weight to government’s proposed diamonds exchange which its details are still being fine tuned.