The infrastructure of a diamond mine in South Africa has been successfully modified and is now ready to begin processing extracted ore, Mining Weekly reports. Diamond company DiamondCorp said that it has adapted its plant at the Lace diamond project in the Free State to begin treating underground kimberlite. Until now, the factory had calibrated to treat only tailings.

With the equipment now compatible with anything DiamondCorp plans to throw at it, the firm will begin processing operations next week. It will begin work on tailings, but it will not work around the clock, maintaining only a single shift for the time being. Once the first batch of rough recovered from Lace tailings is brought to tender – probably in three months' time – a decision will be made as to whether to intensify the processing rate to double or even triple its initial pace.

DiamondCorp noted that selling the gems would likely be especially profitable, due in part to the recent depreciation of the South African currency, the rand.