Firestone Diamonds plc is an

AIM AIM or Aim may refer to: Computing * AIM alliance, an Apple-IBM-Motorola alliance * AIM (software), AOL Instant Messenger * Fortyfive, a Japanese software development company previously known as AIM Military * Abrams Integrated Management, an ...

-listed United Kingdom-based company, operating in

Lesotho Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho and formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Entirely surrounded by South Africa, it is the largest of only three sovereign enclave and exclave, enclaves in the world, t ...

and

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

. In May 2018, the firm announced the appointment of Paul Bosma as

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

slated to succeed Stuart Brown on 1 July 2018.Liedtke, Simon
"Liqhobong GM to succeed Brown as CEO of Firestone Diamonds", ''Mining Weekly'', 14 May 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2018. In 2021 Firestone Diamonds appointed Rob De Pretto as CEO to succeed Paul Bosma, who has left the company after seven years. He has also held executive and leadership roles at Diamcor Mining, Anglo American Research and De Beers.

Liqhobong Mine, Lesotho

The Lighobong diamond mine ('Liqhobong' or the 'Project') in Lesotho is Firestone's principal asset, and was acquired as a result of the acquisition of Kopane Diamond Developments plc in September 2010. Liqhobong is located at the head of the Liqhobong Valley in the

Maluti Mountains The Maloti Mountains are a mountain range of the highlands of the Kingdom of Lesotho. They extend for about 100 km into the South African Free State. The Maloti Range is part of the Drakensberg system that includes ranges across large area ...

of northern Lesotho and is operated by Liqhobong Mining Development Company (Proprietary) Limited ('LMDC'), which is 75% owned by Firestone Diamonds and 25% owned by the government of Lesotho.

BK11 Mine, Botswana

The BK11 kimberlite mine is located in the

Orapa Orapa is a town located in the Central District of Botswana. It is the site of the Orapa diamond mine, the largest diamond-producing mine in the world, and is considered to be the diamond capital of the country. Nearby is another kimberlite ...

kimberlite field in northern Botswana. BK11 is located approximately 10 kilometres west and 20 kilometres southeast of De Beers' Letlhakane and Orapa mines, respectively, and is within 5 kilometres of the Karowe mine operated by

Lucara Diamond Corp Lucara Diamond Corp. is a diamond exploration and mining company, founded in 2009 by two Canadian mining executives, Eira Thomas, Catherine McLeod-Seltzer, and Swedish-Canadian mining billionaire Lukas Lundin, operating in Southern Africa but es ...

. Initial pit design work indicates that approximately 12 Mt of

kimberlite Kimberlite is an igneous rock and a rare variant of peridotite. It is most commonly known as the main host matrix for diamonds. It is named after the town of Kimberley, Northern Cape, Kimberley in South Africa, where the discovery of an 83.5-Car ...

can be extracted at an average grade of 8 carats per hundred tonnes containing circa 0.9 million carats. Phase 1 of the BK11 production plant commenced in August 2010 but was placed on

care and maintenance Care and maintenance is a term used in the mining industry to describe processes and conditions on a closed mine site at which there is the potential to recommence operations at a later date. During the care and maintenance phase, production is st ...

in February 2012 as a result of the plant's inability to successfully liberate diamonds. Phase 2 which included secondary and tertiary crushing circuits and connection to the existing electrical power infrastructure remains to be implemented. The Board is considering various strategic alternatives for its Botswana operation, including disposal or potential joint venture options. BK11 has been acquired by Tango Mining, a TSX Venture listed junior mining company.

References

{{reflist Diamond mining companies Mining companies based in London