Kimberley Diamonds (KDL) has entered into a contract worth A$ 9.83 million, with a South African company Consulmet, for the modification of the Lerala plant in Botswana, reports say. Consulmet delves in design, supply and construction of mineral processing plants, and designing plants for diamond producers. It has operated in Africa since 1993.

The plant modifications are perceived to enable the plant to have better operational efficiency and treat 200 tonnes per hour, reports say.

The Lerala project is anticipated to have a total resource of 10.3-million tonnes, with an average grade of 31.5 carats per hundred tonnes, and totaling approximately 3.3-million carats, as per reports. When it is in production is it expected to have a seven year life treating 1.4-million tonnes of ore a year and producing an average of 357,000 carats per year. Consulmet has been discussing the plant modification since 2014, and had created the design and engineering work last December.

The plant modification is expected to begin late July and complete by February 2016. The company intends to also enhance the plant commissioning and processing of existing run of mine stockpiles at that time and hold its first diamond sale in March 2016, reports say.

Also, KDL had recently finalised a A$ 10 million loan from Zhejiang Huitong Auction Co Ltd of China.