Tsodilo recovered first diamonds with sorter designed by Bourevestnik, part of ALROSA Group

Tsodilo Resources Limited has reportedly received first diamonds in Botswana project with POLUS-M sorter, designed by Bourevestnik, Inc., the company of ALROSA Group.

Tsodilo completed processing of 56 samples of kimberlite ore of the BK16 project in the volume of 925 kg of diamond ore concentrate that were retreated on the POLUS-M sorter, developed by Bourevestnik, Inc. As a result of the processing, 101 diamonds with a total weight of 18.571 carats were recovered, the largest of which was 1.375 ct.

The portable sorter POLUS-M commissioned at Tsodilo's recovery facility in December 2017 is designed for the treatment of dry diamond bearing concentrate of -8 +0,5 mm size fraction with the throughput up to 100 kg/h. The sorter was specially designed for geological exploration in field conditions, but is also used in the field of industrial diamond enrichment in small-scale mines.

Due to its small size and weight, as well as the possibility of working without the connection of compressed air and cooling liquid, POLUS-M is a universal machine for processing diamond ore with not less than 98% recovery rate. One of the main users of POLUS-M sorters is ALROSA Group, in particular, the facilities of JSC "Almazy Anabara". Total park of 21 sorters of this model are used in production facilities of ALROSA.

Bourevestnik, Inc. is one of the world's biggest designers and manufacturers of X-ray sorters for diamond recovery and is a subsidiary of "ALROSA" (PJSC).

POLUS-M is not the only development of Bourevestnik performed for ALROSA, but used also in overseas. Formerly Bourevestnik supplied and commissioned 27 luminescent sorters at new recovery plant of Cullinan mine in South Africa, which is owned 74 per cent by Petra Diamonds.

Tsodilo Resources Limited is an international diamond and metal exploration company engaged in the search for economic diamond and metal deposits and is engage in a series of projects in Botswana and South Africa.