Petra Launches Artisanal Mining at South Africa Site

RAPAPORT... Petra Diamonds has launched a small-scale mining initiativeat its Koffiefontein deposit that will provide work for the local South Africancommunity. The miner will give some of its tailings - ore thathas already been treated - to the Koffiefontein Community Mining PrimaryCooperative (KCM) for processing. The company met with the Department ofMineral Resources and Energy, the regulator for the mining sector, to ensurethe artisanal mining would comply with the Kimberley Process CertificationScheme, as well United Nations standards. "Petra believes there is a space for artisanal small-scaleminers (ASM) to coexist with formalized, large-scale mining, since ASM canoften profitably recover diamonds from resources that would be unprofitable, orat best marginal, for a larger operator due to the capital and overhead costsinvolved," Petra said Thursday. The initiative is the second of its kind for Petra, whichhad previously established ASM activities in 2017 with its former subsidiary,Kimberley Ekapa Mining. "We regard this initiative as yet another milestone in thePetra legacy, and we welcome the KCM artisanal miners as partners in ourindustry to complement our own operations and extract optimal benefit from thediamond reserves in Koffiefontein," noted Petra CEO Richard Duffy. Image: The Koffiefontein mine. (Petra Diamonds)