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De Beers sells tailings, exits rehabilitation liability Posted: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 [miningmx.com] -- DE BEERS has sold 60 million tonnes of tailings and stockpiles at Kimberley for R10.3m to the Small Miners Forum, neatly exiting its rehabilitation obligations there. There are 750,000 tonnes of stockpiles and 14.5 million tonnes of tailings. The Small Miners Forum also bought a further 45 million tonnes of tailings for one rand ($0.14). De Beers amassed the tailings and stockpiles from mining the Bultfontein and Dutoitspan kimberlite pipes. The tailings have been an important source of diamonds for the Kimberley area since 1978, the company said in a statement. Kimberley Mines, the surface operation owned by De Beers, cannot profitably exploit the resources in the tailings because of its high overhead cost structure and those resources are no longer seen as core, said David Noko, chairman of De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM), the South African division of the diamond company. “We believe there are opportunities for other players to take advantage of those assets that may not have a strategic fit with what we are doing,” he said. The decision by DBCM to sell the tailings “forms part of a review of existing operations to focus resources on those operations that fit the company’s strategy to ensure a sustainable profitable company beyond 2014.” Click Here to subscribe to our daily
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