Botswana Diamonds has started work to find new diamond bearing kimberlites and future diamond mines in the Orapa region of Botswana.

The company said its geologists have completed the advance work and procured the necessary equipment. The geologists of its joint venture partner, ALROSA, will join them on licence PL117 in the Orapa area in the coming weeks. The company secured enough capital to launch the joint venture with ALROSA through a successful round of fundraising in December 2013. The joint venture team will carry out further soil sampling, geophysical and geochemical work to define exact drill targets, with drilling expected to commence before the end of March. The licence is just 2.9 square kilometer and is located near the Karowe diamond mine.

The Botswana Diamonds team previously discovered a diamondiferous kimberlite (AK10) on the same licence in 2004.