Botswana Diamonds awarded new prospecting licences

Dual-listed Botswana Diamonds’ wholly-owned subsidiary, Sunland Minerals, has been awarded six new prospecting licences by the Botswana government.

The licence tenure is for a period of three years until March 31, 2023.

The licences cover an area of 4.32 km2 in the Central and Kgalagadi districts, colloquially known as the Kalahari.

Moreover, the government has renewed four existing prospecting licences, covering a total of 1.41 km2 in the Kgalagadi district, to Sunland for a further two years until March 31, 2022.

Airborne and ground magnetic surveys from previous work conducted by Sunland on these licences have revealed well defined targets and subsequent soil sampling over the targets identified heavy concentrations of kimberlitic indicator minerals over these targets, particularly chrome diopsides, strongly suggesting an underlying kimberlite source.

An environmental study is in progress to pave the way for the drilling of these high-priority targets.

Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi has declared a state of emergency following confirmation of three coronavirus cases in the country.

He has also announced a lockdown beginning April 2, for 28 days.

Work will begin on the company’s licences following lifting of the state of emergency and lockdown.