Paragon Diamonds' (LON:PRG) move into Botswana has given it a foothold in a "good" diamond address, chairman Martin Doyle explained to Proactive.
The opportunity also means the firm can potentially bring a modern perspective (and methods) to a historical area of interest, he added.
On Monday, Paragon revealed the award of the licence for a 442 square kilometre area in the north of the TsabongKimberlite field, which plays host to a number of world-class diamond bearing kimberlites.
Recent work from Toronto-listed explorer Pangolin Diamonds has uncovered new kimberlites, which extend the field to the northwest. One of these has been found to be greater than 200 hectares and has been dubbed a "super-kimberlite".
Work in the 1990s on the western portion of the licence recovered kimberlite indicator minerals including a 0.5mm diamond and there are also a number of as-yet-untested magnetic anomalies.
Doyle, who worked in the area in the 1970s, explained to Proactive: "It's a very large kimberlite field, which has been looked at intermittently and probably not necessarily comprehensively.
"This is one of those things where there are potentially some gaps and opportunities."
He added what particularly caught his eye going through historical results was the 0.5mm diamond found in soil sampling.
"That's quite unusual in that kind of environment," he said.
Doyle said that the Tsbong area had always been considered one that had deep sand cover but recent work from Pangolin had shown discoveries at shallower depths.
"So it's obviously variable," he points out.
In the 1970s and 80s, various factors were at play for explorers including searches for diamonds at certain depths and for certain sizes.
"What wouldn't have been a target then is quite possibly an economic target today," he said.
Now, the firm will carry out a thorough low-cost desktop review of all the historical licence data before moving on to more ground work and then potential target generation, he said.
"It's inexpensive to operate in that environment so we can either do some low cost sampling or exploratory drilling," said Doyle.
However, Paragon's focus firmly remains on the Lemphane Kimberlite in Lesotho, where last month it received an all-important mining licence.
Paragon’s subsidiary, Meso Diamonds has proposed a two-stage plan which will see the group mine 540,000 tonnes for the first 24 months followed by 3mln tonnes for an initial open-pit life of a decade. Final terms and conditions of the mining lease agreement are in preparation.
On Monday, Paragon's house broker Sanlam also highlighted that the Tsabongkimberlite field in Botswana was not as well explored as the Orapa Field where De Beers has its Debswana operations, including Jwaneng.
"However, it is believed the TsabongKimberlite field has the same tectonic setting as Orapa and is highly prospective," said mining analyst Charlie Long.
"Martin Doyle, Paragon’s executive chairman, started his career searching for kimberlites for De Beers and Anglo American in Botswana," added the analyst.
The broker also highlighted that the long life of the Botswana licence - at three years, which can be renewed twice again for two years - means it will not distract Paragon from its current activities in Lesotho.