Name of the Project
Star-Orion South diamond project.

Location
Fort à la Corne diamond district of central Saskatchewan, Canada.

Project Owner/s
Fort à la Corne Joint Venture (JV) comprising Star Diamond Corp and Rio Tinto Exploration Canada.

Project Description
A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) has determined that an estimated 66-million carats of diamonds could be recovered from a surface mine over a 34-year life-of-mine.

The PEA envisages the development of two openpits, initially Orion South, followed by Star, using conventional openpit methods.

Conventional hydraulic excavators and haul trucks create a starting “key” for three bucket wheel excavators to remove the sand and clay overburden from the kimberlite. Conveyor belts will transfer the sand and clay from the excavators to the nearby overburden waste area. The exposed kimberlite will be lightly blasted and conventional hydraulic shovels will load the rock into trucks. These trucks will transfer the rock to an in-pit feeder and the kimberlite will be delivered to the processing plant using a conveyor belt.

The processing facility will have the capacity to process 45 000 t/d of kimberlite using autogenous milling, followed by screening, X-ray transmission diamond recovery and dense-media separation of heavy mineral concentrate.

The recovery section will use X-ray technology, with grease as the scavenging technology to recover the low-luminescence diamonds. The diamonds will be sorted into parcels at the on-site sorting facility.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has an after-tax net present value, at a 7% discount rate, of $2-billion and an internal rate of return of 19%, with a payback of 3.5 years after the start of construction.

Capital Expenditure
Preproduction capital expenditure is estimated $1.41-billion.

Planned Start /End Date
The company is aiming to complete the feasibility study by end of 2026 and hopes to have shovels in the ground within three to five years, subject to financing, permitting and updated environmental approvals.

Latest Developments
Star Diamonds has reported a mineral resource estimate for the project.

The project’s indicated mineral resource has been bolstered by 22%, to 34.8-million carats, while the grade has increased by 20%, to 19.4 carats per hundred tonnes (cpht). The indicated mineral resource has increased by 37%, to 36.9-million carats, while the grade has increased by 32% to 17.9 cpht.

“Not only has the requirement for a bulk sample, costing tens of millions of dollars, been removed but we have [also] reduced the time to complete a feasibility study significantly,” president and CEO Ewan Mason has said.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
SGS Canada, DRA Americas and ENGCOMP Engineering and Computing Professionals (PEA).

Contact Details for Project Information
Star Diamond Corp, tel +1 306 664 2202 or email stardiamondcorp@stardiamondcorp.com.