De Beers has announced that its Venetia Mine in South Africa will shift from open pit mining in 2023 to “steady-state underground production in 2026”, Rough & Polished reports. The underground project, estimated at $2 billion in costs, has been in construction since 2013.
Head of Venetia Underground Project (VUP), Christoff Kuhn, was quoted as saying: “The project is on track and on target to start delivering a little bit sooner than we initially anticipated”. De Beers had said in the past that the underground operations, which are expected to extend Venetia’s “life” by 20 years, will yield 96 million carats during the life of the mine.
The Venetia Diamond Mine is the largest producer of diamonds in South Africa. Opened in 1992, Venetia was the first diamond mine to achieve ISO 9002 quality management certification.
