BlueRock Diamonds plc, the AIM-listed diamond mining company, which owns and operates the Kareevlei Diamond Mine in the Kimberley region of South Africa (“Kareevlei”), is pleased to announce that the upgrade to the crushing circuit, including the installation of a larger cone crusher (“New Crusher”), is now complete.
In addition to the installation of the New Crusher, the crushing circuit has been upgraded and reconfigured in order to handle the expected increase in material flows and is now set up to be able to operate the New Crusher alongside the existing cone crusher. The New Crusher began operating yesterday and is expected to be running at full capacity shortly. The existing cone crusher will continue to run as volume through the New Crusher increases in order to maintain production and to build stockpiles of crushed ore in line with our operating plan.
Mike Houston, Executive Chairman commented, “We are pleased that the upgrade of the crushing circuit has been completed. We have taken the opportunity to make a number of improvements to the processing plant during the crusher shut down period and are confident that these improvements will have the desired effect in achieving our targeted level of production in the second half of the year. Our volume guidance for the year remains at 280,000 tonnes to 335,000 tonnes and, as previously announced, we will refine our guidance following the end of Q3 after the reconfigured plant has been operational for two months.”
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