Gem Diamonds hopes it will receive a license for its subsidiary Gope Exploration to mine for diamonds on the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, the Mmegi.bw news site reports.

According to Mmegi, the Gope site contains some 20.5 million carats of diamonds with a value of $3.3 billion. If Gem Diamonds gets the go-ahead to develop the site, it is projected to produce over 1 million carats of rough diamonds per year.

In other news from Gem Diamonds, Q3 sales by value –$51.9 million – remained nearly identical to the corresponding quarter of 2009. However, the amount of diamonds from the company's Letseng mine in Lesotho sold in Q3 rose by 21% year-on-year: 22,503 carats as opposed to 18,642 carats in Q3 2009.

The average per-carat diamond price was $1,680, making the company's Q3 revenue $37.8 million – 18% higher than the corresponding quarter last year.