Last week, Karowe Diamond Mine in Boteti Sub District celebrated 1 Million Carats of diamonds recovered from the mine since its commissioning in 2012.
Giving a keynote address at the event, the Chief of Operations Officer for Lucara Diamond Mine which owns Karowe diamond mine, Paul Day, said that the success of the mine is due to the good team spirit from its workforce.
“Our mine workers have built, commissioned and optimized a whole new mine. They have overcome safety challenges, environmental challenges and technical challenges whether in the field of geology, mining process and engineering. Our team is fantastic,” he said.
He also added that their support services of Finance, Procurement, Human Resources, Sales and Security have set up a formidable system to enable the production functions to perform at their absolute best.
Touching on some of the achievements, Day said that the mine has recovered to date arguably the most beautiful diamonds ever to come out of this country.
“Our diamonds are talked about on the streets of London, New York and Paris. Held in awe and coveted by the rich and famous,” he said.
He also revealed that the mine has every chance of running far in excess of its original design life. He said that there is a good chance that one day Karowe will develop an underground operation to take the life of the mine beyond the originally planned life into 2035 and beyond.
“We are already looking for Karowe 2. Recently the ministry of Minerals, Water and Energy Resources awarded two exploration packages and we will start an accelerated exploration programme soon,” he said.
He said that although there are bigger mines in the country, they as Karowe are going to work as hard as possible to outshine their competitors.
He was optimistic that Karowe will increase production further as time goes on. He said that their plant upgrade is the gateway to the future of the mine. He also said that Karowe has once again set a milestone as it has introduced XRT (X-Ray Transmission) technology as part of its diamond recovery method.
“My message is here at Karowe we are going to be the first mine in the world to use XRT technology as a primary diamond recovery,” he said in conclusion.
Karowe Diamond Mine produces over 400 000 carats of diamonds per a year.
