The Riet River diamond mine, 35 km from the South African diamond capital of Kimberley, is Majestic’s alluvial mine.
It has produced some of the largest and most stunning gem diamonds ever recovered by an Australian company, including recent diamonds of 53 carats, 47 carats and 33 carats, which were snapped up at premium prices by the diamond market.
For example, the 53 carat diamond, named the “Kimberley West”, fetched $228,000 when offered for sale.
Majestic has fine tuned the Riet River operation despite the fact that alluvial diamond operations are, while potentially rich, erratic in recoveries. Part of that fine tuning has included shifting a section of the treatment plant to the actual mining site, a move which cost $20,000 but which will cut costs at the mine by up to $600,000 a year.
Riet, in February, produced 220 carats of gem diamonds, which sold for an average of more than $2,000/carat.