MINERAL PROCESSING: Shear recovers diamonds from Jericho concentrate stockpiles

NUNAVUT – Toronto-based Shear Diamonds has begun processing high grade concentrate stockpiles at its Jericho diamond mine and reports the recovery of 3,500 ct from 358 tonnes of material in the first 10 days of processing.

Shear says it has worked hard to overcome processing challenges at Jericho. These include the balancing of processes and general flowsheet fine tuning, basic maintenance and legacy repair issues, recruitment and training of operating personnel, as well as significant stoppages in power generation and software malfunctions. The company persevered and live commissioning of the recently-modified Jericho diamond recovery plant is underway on a day-shift basis only while Shear ramps up production.

Shear intends to demonstrate that unrecovered diamonds remain in the stockpiles and that it can recover them, generate a cash flow this year with plans to return the mine to full commercial production, and acquire key processing knowledge.

The Jericho mine was developed by Tahera Diamond Corp. and operated from 2006 to 2008. Shear bought the former producer in August 2010. Learn more at ShearDiamonds.com.