Surface mining is expected to take place for some 20 years and, as the mine becomes deeper, the feasibility of underground operations will be investigated.
After waste stripping to expose the kimberlite, the ore is blasted and loaded into trucks, hauled to a crusher, reduced in size and conveyed to a primary stockpile. Crushed ore is then conveyed to the main treatment plant for processing.
Inside the treatment plant, the kimberlite is further crushed, washed and screened into different size fractions. Dense-medium separation is used to produce a diamondiferous concentrate, which is then subject to X-ray fluorescence sorting to separate diamonds from residual waste. After drying, final hand-sorting recovers the diamonds.