29 May 2012
Botswana Diamonds plc
("Botswana Diamonds" or the "Company")
New Diamond Exploration Licence
Botswana Diamonds (AIM: BOD) has been awarded an additional 262.6 square kilometre Prospecting License (PL170/2012) for diamonds in Botswana. The license is held 100% by Atlas Minerals, a wholly owned subsidiary of BOD. The license has been awarded for an initial period of three years after which it can be renewed for two additional periods of two years each.
The Prospecting License is in the Orapa area of Botswana and lies 70km to the southeast of Debswana's Orapa Mine but is still considered to be part of the Orapa kimberlite cluster. The license lies on the highly prospective but lightly explored Kaapvaal craton. Indications are that the mantle in this area remains prospective for diamond bearing kimberlites. The kimberlites discovered to date in the Orapa cluster are mostly in areas of thin to no Kalahari cover. This license area, however, is characterised by a northward protruding tongue of thicker Kalahari cover, up to 60 metres deep, in which discovery techniques used to date may have been less effective.
The initial work will be high resolution geophysics over targeted areas followed by percussion drilling of identified anomalies. This licence is wholly owned by Botswana Diamonds and is in addition to the ongoing data gathering for the joint venture project described with the Company's interim results on 23 March 2012.
John Teeling, Chairman of Botswana Diamonds, commented:
"We are very pleased with this award. This is a highly prospective licence which is under explored. The sand cover of 30 to 60 metres has meant that exploration techniques used until now, particularly soil sampling, have not been effective. The area shares similar characteristics with the area around the Gope mine development of Gem Diamonds and the X36 project of Petra Diamonds. New high resolution geophysics using airborne magnetics will be used to identify drilling targets."
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This release has been approved by Benjamin Mosigi, MSc (Mineral Exploration and Mining Geology), who is a member of the Geological Society of South Africa.
Enquiries:
Botswana Diamonds PLC
John Teeling, Chairman +353 1 833 2833
Westhouse Securities Limited
Richard Baty +44 (0)20 7601 6100
Petre Norton
Blythe Weigh Communications +44 (0)20 7138 3204
Tim Blythe +44 (0) 7816 924626
Susan McKenzie +44 (0) 7919 050828
Robert Kellner +44 (0) 7800 554377
Pembroke Communications
David O'Siochain +353 1 649 6486
This information is provided by RNS