Dry mining of the ore provides options of flexibility in the choice of mining location with minimal disruption to process plant feed. The proposed mining method would involve using an excavator in backhoe configuration to load six wheel drive trucks of 25 to 35 tonne capacity that will transport the diamondiferous gravels to the processing plant. On the return trip the trucks will be filled with material rejected from the processing plant that will be returned to the mining area to backfill the exhausted mining area. The options for mining are dry or wet mining.

Dry mining provides flexibility in the source of plant feed. Should mining conditions change significantly (grade drops, period of heavy rain fall, etc) the mining location can be relocated to a more suitable area at short notice. The key advantage is the capacity to selectively mine only the material that is classified as ore. Other advantages include the capacity to mine around obstacles, mine in areas where there is no ground water (eg terraces, eluvial deposits, high slope deposits). Dry mining has the capacity to minimise the introduction of sediment load to the drainage system by operating in isolation of the drainage system thus not increasing turbidity. On the negative, dry mining requires the construction of access roads and will result in increased short term degradation of the mining environment.

 

Dredge (wet mining) has the advantage removing the oversize material on site that is returned immediately the mine location removing the necessity to rehandle the majority of waste material. The need to maintain a dredge pond may require the mining material that contains no diamonds,, difficulty in mining up land / high terraces and lack of flexibility in the choice of mine location should conditions change. Maintaining a dredge pond ensures that ponds of water are present that are loaded with fine material that has the capacity to interact with the drainage system and increase water turbidity.

Dredging will be used to mine diamondiferous ore from existing river channels and areas adjacent to current river channels that have not been mined using dry mining techniques. A suitable sized dredge will be acquired for this operation when required.