The Voorspoed diamond mine in the Free State is scheduled to close by year-end if the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) is unable to secure, in the next 30 days, a suitable bid that will set the seal on the employment and community support that this Kroonstad-area mine provides. The decision to close the mine follows an intense nine-month expression-of-interest process that has failed to deliver a potential future acquirer of the ten-year-old De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM) operation, which the DMR is now itself making a last-ditch effort to save. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)