Botswana Diamonds has secured environmental authorisation for one of its two mining permit applications for the Thorny River project in Limpopo, South Africa.

The permit has been issued by the South African Department of Mineral Resources and Energy.

The company expects to receive a full mining permit for the project within the next six weeks, upon completion of additional community consultations.

The applications for two mining permits were submitted by the company in late 2022 after extensive exploration activities including ground geophysics, drilling and bulk sampling.

Botswana Diamonds chairman John Teeling said: “We are delighted to see that this authorisation has come through and we anticipate that the mining permit will soon be granted.  The Thorny River project is well placed to restart and expand mining operations when prices recover.”

Situated 6km from the Marsfontein diamond mine, the Thorny River project comprises a kimberlite blow on a dyke system.

In a press statement, the company said: “Thorny River consists of a kimberlite blow on a kimberlite dyke system (i.e. very similar to Marsfontein) and assuming mid-range diamond values of $170/ct [carat], mid-range mining costs, a discount rate of 10% and a recovered grade of 40cpht [carats per 100 tonnes] suggests that 1.7mt [million tonnes] of kimberlite could be mined over the life of mine.”

Last week, Botswana Diamonds secured environmental authorisation from the Botswana Department of Environmental Affairs and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism for drilling operations in the Kalahari.

The company intends to explore two gravity anomalies near its KX36 discovery.

The drilling programme is set to investigate two specific sites, spanning 12 hectares (ha) and 6ha, which are in proximity to the KX36 kimberlite pipe.