More offshore diamonds discovered

MORE diamonds have been discovered off the coast near Luederitz, Diamond Fields International has announced.

An independent consulting company, SRK Consulting, estimated an indicated resource of 63 000 carats in the Diaz Prospect 1 (DP1), the company said from Cape Town, South Africa. The gems were discovered during a sampling exercise conducted under a recently announced joint operations agreement with Bonaparte Diamond Mines NL, an Australian outfit.Calculations and other methods used to estimate the new diamond resource show that the sampled area covered 315 000 square metres at an average grade of 0,2 carats per square metre.About 76 per cent of the total resource (about 48 000 carats) occurs at an average grade of 0,43 carat per square metre at 111 500 square metres within the defined resource area.The larger diamonds found during sampling had an average size of 0,47 carats per stone.The SRK consulting firm anticipates that grades achieved during mining could be 30 per cent higher than estimated as a result of operational experience in the Namibian offshore environment.”The average size of the diamonds in the DP1 area is estimated by SRK at 0,47 carat per stone, which is significantly higher than displayed in most deposits delineated to date in the Luederitz area,” according Diamond Fields.They have an estimated value of US$318 (approximately N$2 162) per carat.The gems were discovered during a sampling exercise conducted under a recently announced joint operations agreement with Bonaparte Diamond Mines NL, an Australian outfit. Calculations and other methods used to estimate the new diamond resource show that the sampled area covered 315 000 square metres at an average grade of 0,2 carats per square metre.About 76 per cent of the total resource (about 48 000 carats) occurs at an average grade of 0,43 carat per square metre at 111 500 square metres within the defined resource area.The larger diamonds found during sampling had an average size of 0,47 carats per stone.The SRK consulting firm anticipates that grades achieved during mining could be 30 per cent higher than estimated as a result of operational experience in the Namibian offshore environment.”The average size of the diamonds in the DP1 area is estimated by SRK at 0,47 carat per stone, which is significantly higher than displayed in most deposits delineated to date in the Luederitz area,” according Diamond Fields.They have an estimated value of US$318 (approximately N$2 162) per carat.