Rockwell operations at Saxendrift

Rockwell Diamonds Inc. has made good progress with the re-commissioning of existing diamond processing plants and start-up of mining operations at the Saxendrift alluvial diamond mine in South Africa.

The Saxendrift Mine is located on the south bank of the Middle Orange River, across from Rockwell’s Wouterspan operation, and is part of the Middle Orange River Operations (MORO) recently acquired from the Trans Hex Group (THG). Rockwell has also recovered its first parcel of diamonds from Saxendrift, including a 13 carat yellow octahedral stone.

Phase 1 of a two-phase development plan for alluvial diamond operations at Saxendrift is now largely complete. Phase 1 activities include:

- Re-commissioning of a 35 tonne per hour Dense Media Separation Plant (DMS);

- Repairing and re-commissioning the gravel screening and rotary-pan plants (including three 16-foot and one 14-foot rotary-pans) located near the north-eastern margin of the Saxendrift terrace;

- Refurbishing and re-commissioning the Flow-sort X-ray final recovery unit; and

- Setting in place mining and earth moving equipment with sufficient capacity to deliver gravels to the two metallurgical plants. Equipment drawn from the Company’s three other operations, supplemented by that acquired from MORO and the purchase of a new Komatsu 475 bulldozer.

By optimizing mining and earth moving operations at the Company’s other mines and purchasing larger earth moving equipment at Klipdam and Wouterspan, spare capacity was re-deployed at Saxendrift, thereby minimizing capital expenditure.

Once the above plants are fully operational, the Company expects to achieve a through-put of approximately 60,000 tonnes of mined gravel per month.

Source : http://www.rockwelldiamonds.com/

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