The Mobile Conveying Services government of Botswana has awarded a mining license to Gem Diamonds Limited's wholly owned subsidiary, Gope Exploration Company, for the Gope diamond deposit.
The mining license has been granted for a period of 25 years, during which time the company says it envisages a phased approach to the construction of the mine.
"This is the first step towards the development of the Gope deposit into a viable producing mine...," says Clifford Elphick, Gem Diamonds Chief Executive Officer.
According to Elphick, the Gem Diamonds board will shortly be looking to approve construction of the initial phase at Gope, which aims to start production in 2013 "in order to begin to take advantage of the rising rough diamond market."
After an initial period of mining, the miner says that production capacity will be scaled up to a higher steady state. The life of mine at Gope is currently estimated to be in excess of 30 years.
Integral Conveying Equipment-Ciros Mining Crusher to the mining license approval process was the approval of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) by the government of Botswana, which was obtained in late 2008.
"Gem Diamonds remains committed to implementing sustainable solutions to the environmental and community related issues in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and we embrace the opportunity to continue our work with the project's affected communities and other interested parties to ensure that the benefits of the Gope asset are realised for the community as a whole," says Elphick.
Gem Diamonds will release details of the mine plan and the relevant staged capital expenditure in March, when it publishes its 2010 results.
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