Stellar Diamonds Regulatory News (STEL)

28 Jun 2007 07:01

West African Diamonds PLC28 June 2007 WEST AFRICAN DIAMONDS plc • Diamond and gold production plant equipment now on site Plant 11 project in Koidu, Sierra Leone. • Plant commissioned for production in September 2007 • 100% upgrade of Pipe 3 carats per hundred tones from 5.3 to in excess of 10 • Geophysical survey completed over Pipe 3 and adjacent dykes. The board of West African Diamonds plc, the AIM listed diamonds and preciousmetals explorer and developer (AIM: WAD), is pleased to announce an update onactivities in Sierra Leone. The 150 tonne per hour (tph) gold plant, has safely arrived on-site at Koidu,Sierra Leone where it has joined the Dense Media Separation (DMS) diamondrecovery plant. Commissioning is underway with production expected to commencein September. This plant, which utilises a unique blend of cost effectivetechnologies, will recover gold and diamonds from the multimillion ton Plant 11Undersize Tailings, where WAD has a 60% interest and is the operator. Earlier in the year, a mobile 5-tph DMS plant was shipped to Koidu, Sierra Leoneto process material from the previous bulk sampling exercise on Pipe 3 (WAD:100%) where 20,000 tonnes of ore from this kimberlite was extracted between June2004 and October 2005. The initial processing yielded 1075.49 carats (5,670diamonds) worth of USD198 a carat at a grade of 5.26 carats per hundred tonnes(cpht). As part of the re-assessment of Pipe 3, the mobile DMS plant has so farextracted 40.47 carats (348 diamonds) from 487 tonnes of the Pan Plant tailings.This would imply that Pipe 3 has a grade in excess of 10cpht. The diamondsfrom the 2004-5 exercise have were re-valued in June 2007 at USD228ct. Whilstthe gold plant is being commissioned, the DMS plant will continue to work onPipe 3, treating the remainder of the raw kimberlite bulk sample taken during2004-2005. Pipe 3, the surrounding area and the adjacent kimberlite dykes has alsosubjected to an intensive ground geophysical exercise. Results of this will bereported shortly. 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. James Campbell, Deputy Chairman, commented "Significant progress in being made in our operations in Sierra Leone. We nowhave the necessary plant equipment on site and should be in production by endSeptember." "We are delighted with the significant upgrade in the value of the pipe 3. Ourwork since the IPO has doubled the resource base on this valuable kimberlitepipe to a level in excess of other comparable projects. The result of 10 pluscarats per hundred tonnes at a value of $228 per carat provides considerableupside for our shareholders and will offer interesting possibilities" Enquiries: West African ResourcesJohn Teeling, Chairman + 353 1 833 2833James Campbell, Deputy Chairman + 27 83 457 3724 Blue Oar Securities PlcJohn Wakefield +44 (0) 117 933 0020 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