Petra Launches Artisanal Mining at South Africa Site

RAPAPORT… Petra Diamonds has launched a small-scale mining initiative
at its Koffiefontein deposit that will provide work for the local South African
community.



The miner will give some of its tailings — ore that
has already been treated — to the Koffiefontein Community Mining Primary
Cooperative (KCM) for processing. The company met with the Department of
Mineral Resources and Energy, the regulator for the mining sector, to ensure
the artisanal mining would comply with the Kimberley Process Certification
Scheme, as well United Nations standards.


“Petra believes there is a space for artisanal small-scale
miners (ASM) to coexist with formalized, large-scale mining, since ASM can
often profitably recover diamonds from resources that would be unprofitable, or
at best marginal, for a larger operator due to the capital and overhead costs
involved,” Petra said Thursday.


The initiative is the second of its kind for Petra, which
had previously established ASM activities in 2017 with its former subsidiary,
Kimberley Ekapa Mining.


“We regard this initiative as yet another milestone in the
Petra legacy, and we welcome the KCM artisanal miners as partners in our
industry to complement our own operations and extract optimal benefit from the
diamond reserves in Koffiefontein,” noted Petra CEO Richard Duffy.



Image: The Koffiefontein mine. (Petra Diamonds)