The Liqhobong Mine in the Kingdom of Lesotho contains reserves of 23 million carats in its open pit, and is poised to become a large-scale, profitable operation, Firestone Diamonds reported Wednesday.

Mining in April and May focused mainly on the K2 and K4 kimberlites, which yielded an average grade of 32 carats per hundred tons. Firestone CEO Tim Wilkes said that mining on the K5 and K6 units would begin in the second half of 2011 and that diamond production at BK11 was expected to reach maximum capacity soon.

A planned expansion for the mine's Plant 1 is on track for completion in Q4 2011.

In addition, Firestone anticipates that its next sale of diamonds from Liqhobong, scheduled to take place as a tender auction in Gaborone, Botswana, later this month, will be significantly larger than April's sale.

"We are very excited with the progress that we have made at Liqhobong in the three months since production commenced," Wilkes declared.