(IDEX Online) - Petra Diamonds Limited has announced the launch of an Artisanal Small Scale Mining (ASM) initiative in the Free State town of Koffiefontein in South Africa.
The miner said it believes there is a space for artisanal miners to co-exist with formalized mining because ASM can often profitably recover diamonds from resources that would be unprofitable for a larger operator because of the capital and overhead costs.
Petra has made some of the mine's tailings mineral resources (TMR) available for the benefit of the community of Koffiefontein.
The miner said in a release that the intention is that properly regulated artisanal mining, which would comply with the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, among other accepted standards, will be conducted on this resource.
"We regard this initiative as yet another milestone in the Petra legacy and we welcome the KCM artisanal miners as partners in our industry to complement our own operations and extract optimal benefit from the diamond reserves in Koffiefontein," said Richard Duffy, chief executive of Petra. "We wish KCM all of the best with this venture, and thank our Government and community partners for their continued support of both the project and the KCM."
This is Petra's second AMS initiative following the establishment of a project in Kimberley where TMRs were allocated to two community-based primary mining co-operatives, Batho Pele and Goede Hoop.