Lucapa Diamond to restart halted Merlin mine
The phased approach will begin with an 18-month initial phase focused on excavating and dredging five existing pits.
Russian diamond miner Alrosa said on Monday studying whether it’s viable to reopen it Mir mine which was shuttered in August 2017 due to flooding, would take more than 4 years.
According to the state-controlled company the work requires deep level exploration down to -1,300 metres to confirm the mine’s reserves and will cost about $30.3 million (RUB2 billion).
Exploration are scheduled to be completed by early 2022 and forms part of the company’s $436m (RUB28.7 billion) capital expenditure programme for 2019.
According to press release “based on the results of the exploration works, pilot holes will be drilled to start preparation of deposit opening design documents (within 1 to 2 years). This work is to be completed before 2024.”
“If the decision is made that restoring the underground mine is worthwhile, its construction would take six to eight years, based on initial estimates,” the company added. Reuters quoted Alrosa as saying it would cost in the region of $1.3 billion to construct.
Last week Alrosa said its JORC Code-compliant resources and reserves as of 1 July 2018 are estimated at 1.064 billion carats and 628m carats, respectively.
