No time for an Isle of Crude story!
Dear Everybody,
I returned from South Africa last week Wednesday and was immediately immersed up to my neck in a number of new listings coming up in London........ and only a few days left before departing for Toronto and New York.
So just a short note re my visit.
I walked through Klipspringer and was impressed by the width of the fissure, a good working width of over two metres. The platter of stones I saw were of good colour and size. In fact, the colour to my eye was generally speaking slightly whiter than the Marsfontein stones.
I am, however, not a diamond valuator and am not qualified to comment on intrusions, flaws, colour, etc. In other words all the factors which determine the value of roughs.
The life of the Marsfontein open pit is nearing its end but I observed a fissure running from the pit the length of which I estimated at about 2 to 2.5 kilometres. This fissure has not yet been explored and, who knows, may well turn out to be as rich as the pit. There are a number of other fissures on the extensive land holding.
Messina has a partially completed shaft on it and some mothballed plant in need of electronic updating. The dip of the orebody is quite steep which should reduce mining costs and facilitate speedy development.
I understand that but for Old Mutual Insurance all the minority holders have not accepted SUF's offer and apart from SouthernEra there are other parties interested in acquiring OM's 15% holding should it decide to sell.
However, what impressed me most on the visit is the team of people Dr Jennings has put together. All of them ex-De Beers.
The man in charge of bringing Messina to production, Mr Alastair McPhee, was De Beers' project manager and considered one of the best in the world. He and his team brought Klipspringer to production in a very short time when the Marsfontein dispute arose and their dedication, professionalism and hard work probably saved SouthernEra from bankruptcy at the time.
As an aside, SUF's Marsfontein jv partner, Randgold (a Kebble company), played its own agenda when the dispute arose. Fortunately, they were not in the 'game' for long......
The Camafuca pipe is huge. Various South African sources informed me that the pipe contains some US$10 billion worth of diamonds and in this connection it is interesting to note that the Angolan Government will not permit De Beers to exploit any existing diamond discoveries.
I had not realised the size of the pipe until Dr Jennings outlined it on a map. He also explained that previous explorers considered the pipe uneconomic because of the cost of diverting the river that flows through it.
But it was when he explained his proposed mining method, a rotary cutter dredge, that I realised that he has turned to advantage what others saw as an obstacle to profitable extraction. Submerged kimberlite is easier to cut and it would not surprise me if the cutting/dredging costs will amount to about US$2.50/tonne.
We were shown a video describing how the dredge is used on underwater tin and gold deposits. It presently operates down to depths of four hundred metres but the Dutch manufacturer is confident that it can perform down to eight hundred metres. Furthermore some units have been operating now for 18 years with no problems and little maintenance requirements, very important considerations for a project located in a remote area.
I cannot but pay tribute to Dr Jennings. Not only has he brought these exciting properties to SouthernEra but he has also assembled a confident, professional team of people to develop the riches. I hope that the contributors to this site may just pause to reflect upon this. Actually, I would dearly like to know how many of the snipers on this discussion group have actually managed a mining company? But then the best captains are always on shore......... as a Dutch saying goes.
I'd also like to mention Mrs Jeanne Jennings whose fluency in African languages is of obvious benefit when dealing with Government Ministers and officials.
I believe that Mr Steven Banning is presently in South Africa familiarising himself with the various projects and Dr Jennings will be one of the speakers at The Rough Diamond Conference 2000, Tel Aviv, Israel, 21-23 March. I am confident that he will use the opportunity to further the company's interests whilst in that country.
Finally, various Canadian sources have informed me of disunity amongst the board of directors. One source went as far as to suggest that a few directors were/are working to an agenda of their own. The normal procedure for dissenting directors is to resign. I trust that the new President will use his executive powers to ensure that unity is restored and that all directors in the future will speak and act for the benefit of the company and its shareholders.
Best wishes,
Crudestope. |
