Jim, they are doing a good job keeping their web site up to date.
diamondworks.com
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DIAMOND PRODUCTION TOPS 2,000 CARATS
AT DIAMONDWORKS' LUO PROJECT
VANCOUVER, CANADA - Bruce Walsham, President and Chief Executive Officer of DiamondWorks Ltd., announced today that diamond production at the company's Luo project in Angola has now exceeded 2,300 carats since the start of limited, alluvial mining in March.
The commissioning of the 50-tonne-per-hour dense-media separation (DMS) plant is almost complete and commissioning work now is underway on the new Sortex x-ray diamond recovery machine. When commissioning is completed later this month, the company's entire diamond recovery plant will be in full commercial production.
Mr. Walsham said that full commercial operation of the entire plant will see daily diamond production at Luo jump from its current rate of about 100 carats a day to about 200 carats a day. "While we're waiting for the highly efficient Sortex machine to come on line, we have been processing lower-grade gravels using traditional grease tables to collect diamonds, conserving the richer gravels to ensure that we get maximum recovery of stones with the new equipment," Mr. Walsham said. "Even so, we've been gratified to see that the lower-grade gravels have been yielding more carats per tonne than we were expecting, which means we may be able to revise upward the rate of diamond recovery that we expect from full commercial operation in the future."
The company is on track to meet original projections which indicated that production at Luo would reach 200 carats a day in July. The production rate could approximately double by the end of the year based on the estimated grade of Luo's alluvial reserves and the design capacity of the new diamond processing plant.
Mr. Walsham assumed the posts of president and chief executive officer earlier this month from Eric Friedland, who remains as company chairman. Mr. Walsham said that DiamondWorks' early experience at Luo is confirming the high quality of the diamond resources that the company has acquired.
"It's always a challenge to start a new mining operation in Africa. But it contains some of the best, untapped mineral deposits in the world and DiamondWorks already has assembled a team of people and a portfolio of properties that, with persistence and patience, will help us achieve our goal of becoming an important, profitable producer of gem-quality diamonds."
Before joining DiamondWorks, Mr. Walsham, who has extensive experience in Africa, was executive chairman of Panorama Resources NL, of Australia, and was formerly a senior executive with international miner Freeport-McMoRan Inc. for 17 years.
The situation at the Koidu kimberlite mine in eastern Sierra Leone remains calm following a military coup in the country in late May. DiamondWorks has temporarily suspended feasibility work at Koidu, including the collection of a 10,000-carat parcel of diamonds for independent appraisal.
DiamondWorks has five diamond concessions in Angola, including Luo, and six concessions in Sierra Leone. These concessions contain diamond resources estimated to total more than 22 million carats of high-quality stones, of which more than 15 million carats are in Angola. The company also has interests in a diamond exploration venture in Canada's Northwest Territories, in five gold and polymetallic exploration ventures in China and in various gold exploration properties in Venezuela.
DiamondWorks' shares currently trade on the Toronto and Vancouver stock exchanges under the symbol DMW.
For further information, please contact:
Bill Trenaman, Investor Relations 604-669-8871, or view DiamondWorks website at www.diamondworks.com.
The Vancouver Stock Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. |
