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07.13
botswana
A drill site at Pangolin’s Tsabong North project in the south-west
of Botswana. Two kimberlites have thus far been discovered by
Pangolin at Tsabong North (photo: Pangolin Diamonds).
A drill rig working on the Ghanzi-Ngamiland copper project. Cupric Canyon Capital (CCC) is planning to develop a 3 Mt/a opencast
and underground mining operation in the project area (photo: CCC).
monds, presently under development, as well as the
new Petra discovery KX-36. He noted that Botswana
Diamonds had taken out options on two blocks on the
Save River in Mozambique which drains the Marange
diamond field in Zimbabwe. Marange, he pointed
out, was one of the biggest diamond finds of recent
years with truly spectacular grades of around 8 000
carats per hundred tonnes having being recorded in
localised parts of the deposit. It was expected to pro-
duce nearly 17 million carats in 2013, he said.
Exploring out of the box
In his presentation, Daniels put forward the view that
a new approach was needed to kimberlite explora-
tion. He said most of the prospective diamond areas
of Botswana had been subjected to at least two phas-
es of exploration and that it was pointless for new
explorers to apply the same techniques to the same
ground and expect a different outcome. New thinking
was required, he argued, and he said that – amongst
other things – Pangolin was looking at the craton
edge and slightly off-craton, as exemplified by its
1 545 km
2
Tsabong North project in the south-west of
the country which lies on the margin of the Kaapvaal
Craton and where it recently discovered a kimberlite.
In his address at the conference (and in private dis-
cussions with
Modern Mining
), he also put forward
the (probably controversial) view that all Botswana’s
diamond mines (with the exception of Jwaneng) and
those in neighbouring parts of South Africa were off-
craton, lying between the Zimbabwe and Kaapvaal
cratons. He listed these off-craton mines and kimber-
lites as being Lerala, Venetia, The Oaks, the Orapa
kimberlites and the Gope Go25 kimberlite (which is
now being developed as the Ghaghoo mine). He also
noted that there were several significant craton-mar-
gin kimberlites/mines in Southern Africa, these being
Dokolwayo, Jagersfontein, Letseng and Liqhobong.
“The conventional wisdom is that you need to look
for kimberlites on craton but the conventional wis-
dom is wrong,” he told
Modern Mining
.
Since the conclusion of the conference, Pangolin
has announced the discovery of a second kimberlite
at Tsabong North, which it believes to be over 20 ha in
extent. It has also reported that well-known geologist
Manfred Marx (who led the field team that discov-
ered the Orapa kimberlite in the 1960s) has been ap-
pointed as a consultant. Marx will work closely with
Daniels and Pangolin’s CEO, Dr Willem Smuts, an-
other highly experienced geologist with a strong track
record in Africa.
The promise of copper
With the big Jwaneng and Orapa pits now very ma-
ture, Botswana faces the prospect – as Keith Jefferis
emphasised – that its diamond production, the main-
stay of its economy, will inevitably decline. There
have been big hopes that copper from the develop-
ing copper region between Maun and Ghanzi would
help to diversify the minerals sector and reduce the
dependence on diamonds. The first mine in this
area – Discovery Metals’ Boseto – opened last year
but its ramp up has been slower than expected and
Discovery reported recently that it “continues to be
