george,
Their web site is somewhat bland, should be corrected in February, www.nora.com also some of the press releases on posted on the SI thread. Part of the deep water concession is located adjacent with the western border of Namdeb's (a JV of the Namibian government and DeBeers)main set of concessions from which the great majority of DeBeers offshore production is derived. During 1996, DeBeers marine recovered 471,000 carats from this area. The area is so rich that production is scheduled to increase by 50% in 1997-98 as DeBeers marine increases its production capacity. (source: Economic Intelligence Unit).
Nora's deep-water concessions are still in the early stages of development. According to a valuation method established by BZW Gold Revue and general information published by Societe Generale Frankel Pollack on the marine diamond industry, the area's likely carats can be determined using the following parameters: It is generally assumed that only 10% of a concession may be covered in diamondiferous sediments. Therefore it is thought that only 15% of the sedimentary area is mineralised. An average recovery rate from mineralised sand is 0.25 diamond carats per square meter. Using these assumptions one can value the various marine concessions held by various parties concerned. Therefore, for every 1000 sq. km. in a concession, 3.75 million carats could be expected to be recovered.
However, this valuation is an oversimplification of the concessions. Simple percentage sediment and percentage sediment mineralised is not representative of all areas. Diamond distribution and grades vary so, even after sampling, an area may be shown to contain economical deposits or to be barren.
Now getting back to their onshore production, Dr. Sutherland ( a world leading expert on alluvial diamond deposits mandated by Nora) prepared a report on the potential of the concession. In his July 1996 report he stated: "First and foremost, this is an outstanding exploration opportunity in an area of proven diamond mineralisation with diamonds of very high quality combined with a profitable mining concern with a five year history of diamond production...as an order of magnitude, the diamond present in the area could be around 3-3.5 million carats...the inferred resource is equivalent to there being 20-25,000 ct/km of coastline. Various comparisons lend to credence to the gross inferred reserve on this coast and that if a minimum realisable diamond value of US $110/ct is taken, then this places the inferred resources in the US $300 million plus category for the concession.
Sorry for going on so long, it's just that i have been following this play for the past 3 years and 1998 is the year this stock finally takes off for good.
Regards,
John |
