Botswana Diamonds (BOD) acquires SA diamond project
Botswana Diamonds (BOD), a public listed diamond exploration and project Development Company this week announced the acquisition of the Thorny River Project located in Limpopo, South Africa.
Thorny River is a flagship project of Vutomi Mining, an associate company of BOD.
Following an outside interest in acquiring Vutomi Mining, the board of BOD recently announced it has exercised its pre-emptive right to acquire the outstanding third-party interests in Vutomi Mining.
Vutomi holds the mineral rights to the Thorny River Diamond Project as well as other exploration assets.
However, upon completion of the acquisition, BOD says it will sell 26 percent of Vutomi for a deferred consideration of US$316,333 to its local South African Empowerment partner, Baroville to comply with South African requirements on empowerment ownership, which will be funded by a loan from Botswana Diamonds.
The acquisition, however, is conditional subject to regulatory approval and is expected to be completed during the first half of 2022.
BOD Managing Director, James Campbell said since working on Thorny River about thirty years ago, they have recognized the potential for discoveries on a kimberlite system spanning 20km saying recent drilling vindicated this view and indicates potential for additional nearby discovery.
“Following a third party offer for Vutomi, Botswana Diamonds has exercised its pre-emption rights. This transaction streamlines exploration activities and involves the local community as supportive stakeholders in this development,” said Campbell.
BOD says Vutomi’s South African projects will be advanced in tandem with ongoing Botswana-based exploration programmes, and may have the potential for early commercial diamond mining.
John Teeling, BOD Chairman also said they are positive about the production opportunities for the Thorny River properties owned by Vutomi.
“An outside company made an offer for Vutomi. Rather than accept the offer, we exercised our pre-emptive right to acquire the outstanding shares. In turn, we then sold sufficient shares to a local South African group to ensure compliance with black empowerment regulations,” he said.