De Beers will seek expressions of interest from potential buyers for its Jagersfontein property in South Africa, the company announced.

The Jagersfontein mine, located in the Free State province, operated from 1870 to 1971, leaving more than 13-million tons of mineral resources in tailings, with an average grade of 12,8 ct/t, De Beers said in a statement.

“The tailings (commonly known as mine dumps) may be attractive to a mining company, or mining consortium, with empowerment credentials and a sound track record in respect of tailings processing operations or comparable operations,” De Beers said.

The group's South African unit, De Beers Consolidated Mines, will issue a request for expressions of interest later this month.

The Jagersfontein mine, which predated the discovery of Kimberley diamonds in South Africa, produced several large diamonds, including the 995,2-ct Excelsior stone, which was discovered in 1893 and was the world's largest rough diamond until the Cullinan diamond was found.

The 650,8-ct Jubilee diamond was discovered in 1895, while a more recent discovery, the Earth Star, found on May 16, 1967, weighed 248,9 ct as a rough gem.

De Beers said it has had discussions with national, provincial and local government authorities about the sale.

The diamond producer went to court in 2007, to defend its rights to the Jagersfontein dumps, after South Africa's Department of Minerals and Energy granted a prospecting right to the dumps to empowerment firm Ataqua Mining.

De Beers argued that the tailings contained diamonds that had already been mined, not resources that were naturally contained in the earth.

According to miningweekly , the Bloemfontein High Court eventually ruled in early 2008 that the Jagersfontein dumps were excluded from the country's Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act, under which existing mineral rights reverted to the State and had to be applied for and converted to 'new order' rights.

The Ataqua prospecting right to Jagersfonten was set aside in the ruling, the report said.