Announces Receipt of Two Safety Awards
Operational Update - Improved plant throughput and diamond recoveries
The restructuring and efficiency improvement initiatives implemented by Rockwell in early 2009 continue to have a positive impact on the Company's operations at Saxendrift, Klipdam, and Wouterspan. Wouterspan remains on care and maintenance. Further improvements are expected from ongoing re-engineering initiatives at the Company's processing plants. In addition, recruitment of additional personnel with engineering skills as well as senior operations management is providing benefit to operating systems and processing plant. The Company continues to focus on better mining efficiency, improved production and lower operating costs.
As a result of its initiatives to improve production and cut costs Rockwell operations exceeded the average annual target of 2,500 carats per month from the three mines during the dry winter period of June to
Summer rainfall has caused a slight decrease in production in October, November, and December relative to the production achieved in the dry winter months (April - September). Heavy summer rains in mid-October, and rainfall in excess of 150 mm (approximately 6 in.) over a three day period in early November in the Holpan and Klipdam area north of Kimberley impeded the work of heavy equipment and processing plants. Production is likely to improve during the drier mid-summer period and into the 2010 winter period.
During
Diamond production data for each of Rockwell's three currently active sites for the current fiscal year is presented in the table below, followed by a brief operational summary for each mine.
------------------------------------------------------------------------- Carat Production ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Holpan Klipdam Saxendrift Total* ------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 150.00 498.99 492.40 1,141.42 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- April 322.94 529.30 294.77 1,147.01 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 513.45 579.55 639.79 1,732.80 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 512.10 1,029.16 748.73 2,289.99 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 831.98 1,430.90 565.56 2,836.71 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 815.59 1,201.01 792.13 2,809.23 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- September 869.13 1,073.42 1,068.16 3,010.71 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- October 460.93 553.95 1,283.59 2,300.47 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- November 372.80 930.22 1,089.58 2,392.60 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- * total include carats recovered from Wouterspan.
Saxendrift mine - The Saxendrift wet rotary pan plant continues to show steady improvement in throughput; its operating cost structure is the lowest of the three mines. During the last quarter, a new high volume (100 tonne) tailings discard bin was erected on site which will lead to additional de-bottlenecking. The bin was built in-house with oversight from an independent consulting engineering firm.
Improvements to the layout of the open pit mining areas have helped maintain throughput and the operating cost structure. In calendar 2010, the Company plans to replace the existing scrubber units with more robust higher volume units manufactured in
Klipdam mine - Klipdam is currently the focus of an audit process to identify bottlenecks and inefficiency. Improvements have been made to the site layout to better cope with run-off from heavy rain. New and improved screening systems are being investigated to deal with wet ground, particularly the clay rich Rooikoppie deposits during the wetter summer months.
Holpan mine - This operation is receiving on-going attention from the engineering and maintenance team to improve throughput and lower costs. During November, the alignment and replacement of gearboxes as part of the normal planned maintenance program on the large 500 tonne per hour Holpan scrubber was completed, resulting in approximately four days of lost production. As noted previously, progressive improvement in throughput and lowering of operating costs at the Holpan operation are particularly important, given that the Dense Media Separation plant is a higher cost operating unit than the rotary pan plants at the Company's other operations.
Wouterspan mine - In
Operating costs - Since
------------------------------------------------------------------------- Production and Costs ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unit Total Unit Cash Production Cash Costs* Unit Costs Costs Cost 2009 Tonnes Carats (ZAR) (ZAR/Tonne) (US$/Tonne) (US$/Tonne) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 370,509 1,141 10,580,191 47.67 $4.77 $2.86 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- April 407,159 1,147 9,239,682 42.50 $4.65 $2.57 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 462,488 1,733 9,769,494 38.24 $4.58 $2.34 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 441,031 2,290 10,506,602 43.23 $5.51 $3.22 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 564,041 2,836 12,484,466 27.74 $3.78 $2.77 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- August 515,365 2,809 12,327,417 24.29 $4.08 $3.04 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- September 597,594 3,011 10,938,465 18.21 $3.54 $2.69 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- October 569,391 2,300 13,561,305 23.82 $3.89 $3.18 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- November 547,980 2,392 10,670,165 19.47 $4.31 $2.59 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- * July, August, September and October numbers include the Westbank payment holiday.
Rockwell Operations recognized through Safety Awards
In October, Rockwell was awarded first place in the Northern Cape Mine Managers Safety Competition run by the Department of Minerals and Resources. This award was for Open Cast Mines with more than 200 employees and there were 12 competing mining companies from diamond, iron ore, manganese, lime and cement mining operations.
In addition, Rockwell Safety Teams from each of its operating mine participated in the Northern Cape Mine Mangers Safety Competition, held at the Idwala Lime operations at Limeacres and including most of the large and mid-tier mining companies operating in the minerals rich Northern Cape Province. Rockwell Safety Teams performed exceptionally well. Company employee MacDonald Matabogi was awarded the prestigious Gold Medal and trophy for the best overall safety representative.
President and CEO
We wish all our shareholders an enjoyable Festive Season and a successful 2010, and wish to acknowledge the support that Rockwell has received from shareholders and stakeholders through 2009."
John Bristow President and CEO
No regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained in this news release.
Forward Looking Statements
This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". Other than statements of historical fact all statements in this release that address future production, reserve or resource potential, exploration drilling, exploitation activities and events or developments that each Company expects are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, changes in and the effect of government policies regarding mining and natural resource exploration and exploitation, availability of capital and financing, geopolitical uncertainty and political and economic instability, and general economic, and market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and that actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on Rockwell, Investors should review Rockwell's annual Form 20-F filing with the
For further information: For further information: For further details on Rockwell Diamonds Inc., please visit the Company's website at www.rockwelldiamonds.com or contact Investor Services at (604) 684-6365 or within North America at 1-800-667-2114
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