DCP.L Regulatory News (DCP)

DiamondCorp plcJSE share code: DMCAIM share code: DCPISIN: GB00B183ZC46(Incorporated in England and Wales)(Registration number 05400982)(SA company registration number 2007/031444/10)('DiamondCorp' or 'the Company')

OPERATIONAL UPDATE

DiamondCorp plc, the African diamond mine development and exploration company, is pleased to provide an update of mine development at Lace in South Africa and kimberlite exploration activities in Botswana.

HIGHLIGHTS

·; The decline development at the Lace mine near Kroonstad in the Free State province of South Africa is on schedule and within budget to access the main kimberlite pipe at the -260m level in March, despite flooding rainfall over the project area in recent weeks posing challenges for waste haulage and dewatering.

·; The 1.2 million tonne per annum dense media separation plant at Lace has been successfully recommissioned with feed from tailings in readiness for processing of fresh kimberlite.

·; 1,328 carats of diamonds recovered during plant recommissioning will be tendered in Johannesburg during February to determine current market price for Lace tailings diamonds.

·; Planning for a mini-bulk sampling programme on the first of two diamondiferous kimberlites discovered near Jwaneng in Botswana is being finalised.

LACE MINE - FREE STATE PROVINCE, SOUTH AFRICA

Development activities at the Lace diamond mine, 200km southwest of Johannesburg, near Kroonstad in the Free State Province of South Africa, have focused on completion of the 4.5m x 4.5m decline to access kimberlite resources below -260m. The decline is scheduled to access the kimberlite 20m below any of the historical workings at the Lace mine.

The decline from the portal to the current working face is now over 1km and about 200m vertical depth, with a further 220m of development remaining to be completed before access to the main Lace kimberlite pipe is achieved. This decline will be used for the haulage of kimberlite from below the -260m level for bulk testing purposes and for waste and ore haulage during the ramp up to full scale production.

Flooding rainfall over the project area in recent weeks has posed challenges for waste haulage and mine dewatering. Despite these challenges, the development currently remains both on schedule to be completed in March 2011 and within the £5 million budget detailed in the materials dispatched to shareholders for the extraordinary general meeting held in December 2010. Any further occurrences of extraordinary rainfall may impact on this schedule.

Once the existing 6m x 2.5m vertical shaft is re-equipped for primary ore hoisting, production at Lace will increase to 1.2 million tonnes of kimberlite per annum and the decline will then be utilised for men, materials and ventilation for the remainder of +25-year life of the mine.

The refurbishment of the vertical shaft and the ramp up to full scale production is scheduled to take between nine and 12 months to complete and, as at November 2010, the cost for this development was estimated at £5.3 million. A detailed review of the mine development cost and mine plan is currently underway.

In preparation for processing the initial 30,000 tonne bulk sample of kimberlite from the -260m level, the 1.2 million tonne per annum dense media separation plant at Lace has been recommissioned with feed from the kimberlite tailings left from mining activities which took place between 1900 and 1930. The plant has been successfully recommissioned to optimal operating condition and a number of excellent gem diamonds were recovered during the process, including 7.04 carat and 5.99 carat stones.

A small parcel totaling 1,328 carats of diamonds recovered during the recommissioning process will be tendered in Johannesburg during February to determine the current market price for Lace tailings diamonds. This will provide management with the price information required to determine if it will be profitable to supplement fresh kimberlite processing with tailings material during the balance of 2011 while the full-scale mine plan is being implemented.

Commenting on the activities, DiamondCorp CEO, Paul Loudon said: 'It is exciting for shareholders that our team continues to successfully overcome the technical challenges of opening up an old kimberlite mine that has been under water for more than 75 years.

'We are now weeks away from accessing the top level of the estimated 33 million tonnes of kimberlite remaining below any of the old working areas at Lace. At the same time, world diamond prices have recovered to levels higher than before the crash of 2008, and the long term metrics for the industry remain very strong.

'We look forward to processing the first 30,000 tonnes of fresh kimberlite from the -260m level at Lace in the months ahead and reporting the recovered mining grade and carat value before the end of the second quarter.'

In other developments, the Board welcomes the appointment of Mr Wayne Cloete as general manager at the Lace mine. Wayne is a mining engineer with more than 25 years experience in underground mines in South Africa. He was previously Section Manager, Moab Kotsong for AngloGold Ashanti and Mine Manager, Dominion for Uranium One. He continues the mine development work initiated by the previous mine manager Mr Keith McCulloch who tragically passed away after a short and unexpected illness in the final quarter of 2010.

The Lace mine has also entered a joint venture with African Mobile Crushers (Pty) Limited to investigate the potential for selling andesite waste rock from the Lace mine decline development as sized crushed stone product. Income from this activity has the potential to provide a useful credit to ongoing mine development expenditure.

BOTSWANA

Preparations are being finalised for the commencement of a large diameter drilling programme in Prospecting Licence PL/71 near Jwaneng in southeast Botswana on the first of two diamondiferous kimberlite pipes which were intersected during the Company's drilling activities in 2010. The first pipe to be tested will be J-05, a 1.5ha kimberlite under approximately 28 metres of Kalahari sand.

Boreholes logging indicates the J-05 kimberlite comprises calcretised kimberlite from approximately 28m to approximately 50m vertical depth, slumped Karoo mudstones and volcaniclastic kimberlite from 50m to up to 105m vertical depth, and various facies of volcaniclastic and coherent kimberlite from 85m to at least 218m, the deepest drill intersections from the initial programme.

Of particular geological interest is the presence of mudstones in the core which indicates that the kimberlite intruded unconsolidated sediment at the time of emplacement. In addition, kimberlite is "mixed-in" with these mudstones in places. The mudstones are most likely to be of Karoo age (approx. 250 million years ago). These features suggest that the J-05 kimberlite is the same or similar age to the kimberlite being mined by Debswana at Jwaneng, 10km to the northwest where similar features are known to be present. Jwaneng is the richest diamond mine in the world measured by value.

Microdiamond analysis of core samples from J-05 yielded 51 diamonds, comprising two macrodiamonds and 49 microdiamonds. One macrodiamond was white/colourless and one was off-white. (Macrodiamonds are diamonds that are greater than 0.5mm in the longest axial dimension.) Encouragingly, the presence of two macrodiamonds suggests the possibility of a coarse stone size distribution.

DiamondCorp is earning a 77.5 per cent interest in PL/71 from Botswana company Geoperspectives (Pty) Limited by funding exploration activities.

The Competent Person responsible for the technical information contained in this announcement is Mr Paul Zweistra (Pr. Sci. Nat., Registration number 400016/93) a full-time employee of VP3 Geoservices (Pty) Limited. VP3 and Mr Zweistra have given their permission for their work to be quoted in this announcement.

London

3 February 2011

AIM Nomad: Cenkos Securities plc

AIM Brokers: Cenkos Securities plc, Fairfax I.S. plc, Ocean Equities LtdJSE Sponsor: PSG Capital (Pty) LimitedDiamondCorp plc, Paul Loudon +44 20 7256 2651Liz Bowman/Ivonne Cantu, Cenkos Securities plc +44 20 7397 8900Ewan Leggat, Fairfax I.S. plc +44 207 598 5368Guy Wilkes, Ocean Equities Limited +44 207 786 4370John-Paul Dicks, PSG Capital (Pty) Limited +27 21 887 9602Charmane Russell/Marion Brower, Russell & Associates +27 11 880 3924