Richland Resources (LON:RLD) has started to refurbish its sapphire mine in Queensland and is eyeing first production by early 2015.
A financial assurance bond has been filed with the Queensland government, which has approved the plan of operations, and work is set to start on re-commissioning its alluvial processing plant.
The processing plant can treat up to 200 loose cubic metres per hour.
The two leases comprising the deposit contain a JORC (2004) measured sapphire resource of approximately 21.6mln grams (109mln carats) of sapphire.
Richland has changed the name of its Australian operating subsidiary to Capricorn Sapphire and rebranded the project to "Capricorn Sapphire" from Nardoo.
Bernard Olivier, Richland Resources’ chief executive, said: “We have now implemented our redevelopment plan and are scheduled to commission production by Q1 2015.
"In the meantime our marketing and sales teams are working to develop customer relationships ahead of first sight sales."