By Poloko Mokhele
There has been a significant growth in production at Letšeng Diamonds in the half first of the year, with a total 58 831 carats recovered, an increase of 36 percent from the half year of 2020.
This according to the mine’s Half-Year Report for the period ending 30 June 2021, which was released recently by Gem Diamonds which owns 70 percent of Letšeng in partnership with the government of Lesotho, which owns the remaining 30 percent.
The report indicates that the half year of 2020 was significantly impacted by the operational 30-day shutdown and further ramp-up period to bring the operation to full capacity due to COVID-19.
“Carats recovered (in 2021) increased by four percent when compared to the half first 2019, which was a more comparable period, mainly due to the higher contribution from satellite pipe material.
“The mine’s Business Transformation initiative to re-treat historic and current recovery tailings through the mobile X-ray sorting machine recovered 592 carats compared to 456 in the same period in 2020. An additional 43 carats were recovered by the new mobile fines X-ray sorting machine that was commissioned at the end of May.”
