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46
D I AMOND
EXPLORAT I ON
The chase is on: diamond miners continue to search the ends
of the earth for the next big find.
2013 SNAPSHOT
AROUND US$7 BILLION HAS BEEN SPENT ON EXPLORATION
SINCE 2000
Diamond mineral systems occur in very specific
cratonic target areas – these are well-known.
With growing demand for diamonds and dwindling
supplies from existing mines, the search for the
next diamond mines is expected to continue.
Since 2000, the diamond mining industry has
spent almost US$7 billion on exploration
30
.
To date, these efforts have yielded relatively meagre
results: only one diamond deposit of significant size
(Bunder, in India) has been discovered during this
period
31
, in addition to other smaller deposits such
as Orapa AK6 in Botswana (now the Karowe mine),
owned by Lucara Diamond Corporation.
Today, the majority of diamond exploration spend
takes place in relatively underexplored African
countries such as Angola, the DRC and Zimbabwe,
as well as the vast swathes of Arctic Siberia and
Canada. Recently, there has been some change in
the allocation of this spending: from 2011 to 2013
the share of global exploration spending that went to
Russia increased from 27 per cent to 54 per cent, at
the expense of countries such as Canada, South Africa
and India
32
(see Fig. 29).