The big spenders in the September quarter may represent a vastly different group but one commodity group that stands apart from the iron ore hunters is the diamond explorers.
Five of the top 30 juniors in the WA Business News September quarter Exploration Survey are diamond explorers, with four from Western Australia.
And this group accounted for $16 million of the $104 million spent – about equal to their representation in the elite group.
These miners spent above their forecast amount, with the top five in diamonds exceeding their exploration budgets by an average of nearly $2.5 million.
Once again, iron ore hopeful Fortescue Metals Group was at the top of the heap, spending nearly $20 million in the survey period. Fortescue has been at the head of the table for the past four quarters.
But it was the diamond players that have lifted their game this time, notably Miles Kennedy’s Kimberley Diamond Company, which jumped from 15th in the June quarter to second in the current survey. Kimberley spent $8.4 million in the three months to September on exploration to expand its Ellendale pipes operation in the Kimberley.
It also announced a $40.6 million capital raising to further fund the project.
Not included in the survey, Rio Tinto’s Argyle Diamonds recently announced the go-ahead for a $1.2 billion underground expansion at its namesake mine in the Kimberley with the excavation of a 2.5 kilometre exploration decline, costing $60 million. As part of the total capital cost, Rio will spend $205 million on smoothing the transition from open pit to underground mining at the site.
Blina Diamonds, which is 54 per cent-owned by Kimberley Diamond Company, spent its $2 million exploring tenements in the Ellendale area, adjoining Kimber-ley’s operation.
Bonaparte Diamonds spent more than $1.5 million completing its marine diamond exploration program in the Cambridge Gulf, near Wyndham.
United Kimberley Diamonds spent $1.44 million in the quarter on drilling in the Kimberley region.
