Southstone Minerals Ltd’s 43% owned subsidiary, African Star Minerals, has entered into a contract mining and diamond recovery agreement with Oryx Mining for the Oena diamond mine, in South Africa.

Oryx, at its own cost and expense, will provide and maintain all the plant and equipment as required to perform the mining services, Southstone says.

The diamonds produced by Oryx will be sold via a designated tender facility in South Africa and 80% of the gross income of net diamond sales, less commission, will be paid to Oryx for the duration of the 36-month agreement, the company explained. For any individual stones recovered with a gross selling price, less commission, of greater that ZAR10 million ($664,529) Oryx will be paid 70% of the gross income.

Oryx specialises in the processing of alluvial diamond deposits in South Africa and the operation is currently targeting to operate 24 h/d, six days a week with total headfeed capacity of 200 t/h. Equipment and road building is ongoing, and it is expected production will commence in May 2022.

The contract award follows the conclusion of mining by another contractor, Bluedust 7 Propriety Ltd.

Oena consists of an 8,800-ha mining right located along the Orange River in a well-established alluvial diamond-mining province that produces high quality and large sized diamonds.