Johannesburg - De Beers, the world's largest rough diamond producer, says it may consider mining the dumps at its old Jagersfontein mine in the Free State in the future.
According to David Noko, head of the company's South African operations, external partners will be sought to treat the dumps at the dormant mine, that lasted over 100 years until 1971 and left a whole deeper than Kimberley's.
"We will contract it out or allow other players to mine the dumps," Noko told I-Net Bridge at the sod turning ceremony of the company's Voorspoed mine.
He added that nobody has been chosen as yet.
"We have had some people that have indicated they are interested but no deals have been done yet."
Access to sufficient water is a problem in the area but plans are being made by local government to solve this, according to Noko.
The first diamond was discovered at Jagersfontein in 1871 and one of the world's largest ever diamonds, the 972 carat Excelsior, came from there.
A few years ago Kimberley began winding down its underground operations to focus on the dumps at the mine.
The company built a combined treatment plant for R800 million and in 2005 Kimberley produced 1.9 million carats, largely from the dumps.
On Monday, De Beers held the official sod turning ceremony at the 1.2 billion rand Voorspoed project in the Free State. The mine is set to produce over 700 000 carats a year for over a decade starting in 2009. - I-Net Bridge