The influx of illegal miners in Kimberley is not affecting Petra Diamonds’ Kimberley Ekapa Mining (KEM) joint venture, Petra CEO Johan Dippenaar says.Up to 1,000 illegal miners are reported to be operating on parts of the KEM property, which consists of both surface tailings and underground mining.Recently, illegal mining was highlighted when three people were killed in a fire at disused gold mine shafts at Langlaagte, near Johannesburg.Dippenaar says there were illegal miners around Kimberley Mines before Petra bought the operations from De Beers. They are not in the area where KEM operates. He expects government will support KEM, because it is extending the life of the operations and retaining jobs, and government has a new focus on tackling illegal mining after the Langlaagte events.The combined Kimberley operations contributed 14% of the group’s production in the year to June, against 60% from the Finsch mine and 18% from Cullinan. Dippenaar says in the coming year, as Cullinan’...
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