Newfield Resources Limited issued its quarterly activities report for the March 2023 quarter, saying it saw zero lost time injuries (LTI) during the period and recorded 321 LTI-free days up to the end of the quarter.
According to the company, the life of mine Loss Time Injury Frequency Rate has improved to 0.4, with reporting calculations based on per 200,000 hours worked.
In regard to its operations at the Tongo Diamond Mine in Sierra Leone, the company said activities during the quarter focussed on stope development and blasting of the Kundu A segment of the mine.
It added that a fourth stop face was created from cross-cut 16 by blasting a 24 m raise at an angle of 35 degrees.
The narrow stope mining widths were achieved through careful charging and blasting within the competent granitic side walls, which provide stable hanging and footwalls to the kimberlite ores.
A total of 24.4 m of stope face advance was achieved, bringing the total cumulative stope face mining advance to 99.7m for stopes A1, A2, A3 and A4.
Newfield will continue to use underhand mining methods to improve tonnage production compared to overhand stoping as the material can be drawn down from the stope earlier.
The mining of Kundu A stopes will continue through the June quarter for the continued mining of ore for processing.
The company added that the development towards the Kundu B and C kimberlite segments to the west of the ore body will commence now that the required equipment and materials are available on site.
A second diamond sale is now being planned for the June quarter, subject to rough diamond market conditions.
Reporting on its other assets, Newfield said no exploration work was conducted on the Liberia licences due to the pending results of the microdiamond samples, which are currently at the Saskatchewan Research Council Laboratory in Canada.
