Stellar Diamonds Regulatory News (STEL)

18 Jul 2007 07:01

West African Diamonds PLC18 July 2007 18th July 2007 ACQUISITION OF ASSETS & APPOINTMENT OF COO • Acquisition of a significant gold and diamond resource in Sierra Leone • Acquisition of production assets to accelerate output • Appointment of Chief Operating Officer The board of West African Diamonds plc, the AIM listed diamonds and preciousmetals explorer and developer (AIM: WAD), is pleased to announce that WAD hasacquired new assets in Sierra Leone which have materially increased its resourcebase and will accelerate its expanding production portfolio. The assets were purchased for 2,526,773 ordinary shares (7% of the enlargedshare capital) and include the 1.5M tonne Plant 6 undersize tailings resource(estimated 15 cpht and 0.3 g/t gold) and the 1.2M tonne Plant 6 oversizetailings resource (estimated 6 cpht). Application has been made for theconsideration shares to be admitted to AIM. It is expected that dealings in theconsideration shares will commence on 23 July 2007. The production assets include a crane, front-end loader, trucks and a fueltanker. These will be used on the Plant 11 Dump Undersize project and in WAD'sexpanding assets in Guinea. The assets were acquired from Fastrack ServicesLimited Hennie Wessels has joined WAD as Chief Operating Officer (COO). Hennie hasbeen directly involved as technical director and shareholder in projectstart-ups and on-site operations management of diamond mining operations inSouth Africa, Angola, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Sierra Leone for the pastseventeen years. In Guinea he was, for several years, a major contractor to the Aredor project,West Africa's largest alluvial mining operation. He has spent the past nineyears working in Guinea and Sierra Leone during which time he establishedexcellent relationships at all levels in both countries. James Campbell, Deputy Chairman, commented: "This is a significant expansion of our activities in West Africa. Good qualityproduction equipment in country is a very scarce and valuable resource. Thisequipment will improve our Plant 11 operation which is coming on stream inSeptember and will expedite the development of our Bomboko alluvial project inGuinea. The Plant 6 tailings which is located close to our Plant 11 project isa welcome increase to our resource base." "I'm delighted with the appointment of Hennie Wessels as COO. He bringsenormous West African production experience and should be able to expedite thecommercial development of WAD's significant assets. This deal is all about monetizing our assets and creating value forshareholders. Not only have we increased our resource base, adding potentiallylucrative resources to our portfolio; we have also acquired valuable resourceswhich will speed up our route to production and positive cash flow" This release has been approved by Alex van Zyl, Technical Director AfricanDiamonds. Alex van Zyl (B.Sc. Stellenbosch, B.Sc. hons. Pretoria) spent a longcareer in Anglo American in the diamond division, ending up 1990 to 1997 withworldwide responsibility for diamond exploration and evaluation. He was aconsultant to De Beers from 1997 to 2002. Enquiries:West African DiamondsJohn Teeling, Chairman + 353 1 8332833James Campbell, Deputy Chairman +27 83 457 3724 Blue Oar +44 (0) 117 933 0020John Wakefield College HillPaddy Blewer +44 (0) 20 7457 2020Nick Elwes +44 (0) 20 7457 2020 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange