Hello Peter
I will try to reach David over lunch Peter. Thank you for the address.
Man o man, this thread has suddenly become popular. Spent half an hour this A.M. going through all the posts. Some really good stuff. Everyone deserves congratulations. A truly informative series of posts and not a shot taken at anyone. What a pleasure to read.
One of Joe's question's was not answered however and I will briefly try, however inadequately.
Yes, generally dyke deposits are very narrow such as the ones at River Ranch or Koidu but that is what the market has liked about Klipspringer's. They have averaged well over two meters and have ballooned to over ten from time to time.
Secondly, they have proven to contain average carat sizes and values/tonne that are well above average for diamond mines (see chart posted last week).
Thirdly, and this is often overlooked, most dykes are found in relatively flat eroded geology, however, the Leopard, Sugarbird, and I believe the others, cut across a series of eroded mountains, (see annual report photos) thus allowing multiple adits to be driven economically for ore extraction from several locations and multiple drifts simultaneously.
Finally, while most dykes have not been found to be more than 2 to 6km in length, the Leopard has been traced for over 60km and I believe the Sugarbird has up to 20km of proven strike. None of the dykes have as yet had their entire strike established.
When Goalie talks about 50 years, he is quoting SUF's usual conservatism. I don't believe it takes too many minuets with a calculator to figure out that even at 5,000 or 10,000 tonnes/day, that these deposits will be producing well beyond that time frame.
The following is from Cannacord's Morning Coffee:
* SouthernEra Resources (SUF : TSE : $8.00 : Issued 30.4M)
Much of last week's diamond mining news focused on developments in
SouthernEra's ongoing litigation over the M1 diamond-bearing pipe at
the Klipspringer Project in South Africa. While this is a focal facet
of the SouthernEra story, the Company did provide brief updates Friday
on the Luo (alluvial) and Camafuca projects in Angola, and a progress
report on other activities at Klipspringer.
Production from the Chicapa River and floodplain alluvial deposits on
the Luo Concession in Angola for six weeks during February and March
was about 5,120 carats and sold for a total of US$1.1M; a 100.78-carat
stone sold separately for over $400,000: SouthernEra's share of the
proceeds amounted to US$775,000.
Samples from the drill program on the Camafuca Pipe in Angola should
be analyzed by mid-May, and further selective drilling and bulk
sampling is planned. SouthernEra has renegotiated the payment terms
on Camafuca. The US$7M payment due April 10/98 was satisfied by the
issue of 173,770 shares valued at $1.5M, with another market-related
share plus cash payment equivalent to US$6.5M due in about one year.
Of the 22,000 carats of Klipspringer stones being readied for sale,
some 19,000 were produced from the Sugarbird Blow (balance from the
Leopard Fissure). The Company did not provide tonnage figures, so a
grade rationalization is not possible. Throughput has varied in the
plant from 1,000 to 2,000 tonnes per day (2,000 tpd rating) since its
start-up on March 2. The mine life of the Sugarbird Blow is only
several months (4-5 months at plant capacity), but it will be
interesting to see the diamond price realizations at the early May
sale as a significant increase in the average stone size had been
observed in early processing over what had been recovered from the
pilot plant: the broken stone phenomena?
For those readers of The Financial Post, this analyst has never used
the term "all bets are off." To state a buy or sell opinion at this
time on SouthernEra still bears on taking a stance on the M1
litigation and this is well beyond our scope: we continue to monitor
the situation as closely as possible (please see Daily Letter comments
of April 16 and 17).
David James (204) 988-9602
Its sunny and cloudless here in YK for the sixth day in a row (12+ Centigrade today). Snow is a day or two away from being all gone from most yards with sun exposure, and the ice roads closed Friday. The lakes remain frozen and will not seriously candle until we have had several days of rain usually in first to second week of May but then this is not a normal year. Ice over deeper lakes should be sound enough for drilling if they had ice drill platforms frozen in last month, until at least third week of May to first week of June depending on the rain and any major storms that blow in.
Minor speculative accumulation late Friday and this morning in IAR. Keep your eyes on it and KLA for any inkling of field success at Munn and Margaret.
***OFF TOPIC***
One last thought Joe. If you have a bunch of KRY, you may want to read todays electronic article from Stockwatch. The M1 shinanigans pale in comparison.
KRY does not come off looking like the world best investment.
Regards |
