Stellar Diamonds Regulatory News (STEL)

14 Jan 2008 07:00

West African Diamonds PLC14 January 2008 14th January 2008 West African Diamonds Plc PLANT 11 MINE IN KOIDU, SIERRA LEONE REACHES FULL PRODUCTION • Plant 11 Mine in Sierra Leone in full production • Gold recovered from the first gold pour and over 3,100 diamonds recovered to date. • Marketing contracts in place and first gold and diamond sales planned for Q1 2008. The board of West African Diamonds plc, the AIM listed diamonds and preciousmetals explorer and developer (AIM: WAD), is pleased to provide an update on itsPlant 11 Tailings Mine in Koidu, Sierra Leone. Gold and diamond production has commenced on the 7M tonne undersize tailingsdeposit. The plant has been commissioned at its targeted capacity of 150 tonnesper hour and is currently operating on an extended day shift basis. Overalloutput for the 7M tonne deposit is expected to be approximately 0.4g/tonne goldworth $9 a tonne of ore and diamonds worth $3 a tonne of ore. Expected miningand treatment costs are $3 per tonne. The first gold pour has already takenplace and in excess of 3,100 diamonds (198 carats) have been recovered from the16,100 tonnes of material treated to date. Gold and diamond marketing contractsare in place and the first sales will occur in Q1 2008. This release has been approved by Alex van Zyl, Technical Director, West 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, said "A year ago when West African Diamondslisted in London this project had yet to reach the detailed designed stage. Itis a major achievement and a tribute to our staff in Sierra Leone that we havebeen able to design, build and commission a mine in West Africa in one year.Plant 11 which should produce revenue for a number of years provides a soundfoundation on which to build our other mines in Sierra Leone and Guinea." Enquiries: West African DiamondsJohn Teeling, Chairman + 353 1 8332833James 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