Johannesburg - Lonrho plc (LAF) - formerly Lonrho Africa - announced on Tuesday that Nare Diamonds, the Australian listed African diamond mining company in which it holds a 21.94% stake, has completed and commissioned a new final recovery processing plant at its Schmidtsdrift mine in South Africa. This should significantly increase the recovery of diamonds, the group said.
Nare recently announced its intention to change its name to Lonrho Mining and pursue a dual listing on AIM.
The new final recovery plant will treat all diamondiferous concentrates produced by the mining operations at the Schmidtsdrift mine. The plant contains six proprietary Flowsort X-ray diamond recovery machines, each calibrated to recover specific diamond size fractions.
The recovery process is expected to attain recovery levels over 95%. The hands-free process is undertaken in a closed circuit, with no human interaction.
Nare also announced that after the commissioning of the plant, it has recovered a gem quality 32 carat diamond from the Schmidtsdrift mine. The diamond has been valued with an average value per carat of US$2 000.
"I am confident that the new technology that has been commissioned at the Schmidtdrift mine will add significant value to the operations in terms of the quality and volume of diamonds recovered. The X-ray based recovery is regarded by the industry as the optimal recovery process and the most secure," said David Lenigas, chairperson and CEO of Lonrho and chairperson of Nare Diamonds.
"Additionally the recovery of the commissioning of a new centralized ?state of the art? flowsort recovery plant 32 carat diamond last week emphasises the strong potential of the Schmidtsdrift resource and operations," Lenigas added 25 august 2007 first commised Qtr
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