Africa-Press – Botswana. Following an improvement in diamond markets, Jwaneng Mine will resume full production by next week, the General Manager, Mr Goitseone Gadifele, has said.
Updating district administrative authorities in Jwaneng during a business brief and mine tour on Tuesday, Mr Gadifele said they had to scale down production in the last quarter due to economic downturn affecting international markets.
Mr Gadifele said the gradual improvement recorded from last month reflected a positive outlook for their product.
“We did not do well in the last quarter hence we had to scale down production for three months.
However, we will be going to full production effective March 23 after experiencing a significant improvement in February,” he said.
Mr Gadifele added that a contract had been awarded for the first phase of the underground mining project, and mobilization has since started. The first blast was scheduled for May, which will pave way for the exploration access for the underground project expected to run from 2034.
He said the transition from open pit to underground mining had to be well executed to close any revenue gap.
“We are busy planning because we want to ensure a smooth transition between open pit and underground, we do not want a revenue gap during this transitioning period,” he said.
Mr Gadifele said because of shortage of underground mining skills locally, they would have to import skills during the early stages of the project. Plans were underway to have a training centre that would not only benefit the Jwaneng Mine underground project in future, but to also export skills to other mines locally and internationally.
He assured the authorities that the underground mining project would come with minimal impact to the residential areas in the township since the kimberlite extraction was localised.
He outlined the strategic plan for diversifying the economy and ensuring sustainable development of the communities beyond diamond production. He said they intended to facilitate small stock production in the region to better position Botswana for international markets through their Diamonds to Mutton initiative.
The company had aspirations to promote Jwaneng as a sporting hub, through the development human diamonds in sport as well as improved sporting infrastructure.
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