Diamond explorer Kopane Diamond has signed a 60-day exclusivity agreement with a potential investor that could see the firm develop its Liqhobong Main Pipe project in Lesotho.
The mining group has the technical, operational and financial ability to take the project to full scale production, Kopane said.
In September, Kopane announced a resource statement for the Main Pipe project showing a total resource of 90.09 million tonnes, which is a 19.1% hike over the previous year’s estimate.
The latest findings showed a gross diamond reserve of 29.7 million carats, at an average grade of 33 cpht, which provides a $2.6bn estimated in situ value based on bulk sample diamond values on September 2008.
Work by WWW International to assess grade and valuation will begin shortly and the results of this work will be provided in due course.