Two thunderstorms flood Lace mine

DiamondCorp, the Southern African diamond mining, development and exploration company, announced that the Lace Diamond mine was flooded owing to thunderstorms. The incident occurred in the late afternoon of Friday, 11 November 2016, when two extreme thunderstorms passed over the Lace Mine, dropping almost 90mm of rain in just over an hour. This equates to almost one-third of the mine's annual rainfall.

This has overwhelmed the mine's pumping systems and flooded the 310m production level to the hanging wall. In total, more than 10,000 cubic metres of water is estimated to have entered the mine through the open pit and access ramps.

The company noted that nobody was hurt in this and all personnel were successfully evacuated.

Also, to pump the production level dry would entail at least a week assuming no further material rainfall, as per the company. However, once the level is dry production will not be possible in the short-term since the longhole drill rig operating at the time of the flood will need to be recovered and the electrics rebuilt. The company is estimating it could span up to 12 weeks from the time of recovery.

Pursuant to the incident the management is looking into possibilities and is consulting a business rescue practitioner for the its operating subsidiary, Lace Diamond Mines (Pty) Ltd. It has requested a suspension of its shares from trading on both the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange and on the Alternative Exchange of the JSE Limitedwith effect from 07:30 a.m. UK time and 09:00 a.m. SA time, respectively, pending clarification of its financial position.