Suf presentation was about "The little company that could and did".
This is the topic CJ was given by the coordinator so he gave us a history of the early years, and his "never quit" attitude in the face of early failures. Video tapes of all the technical sessions are available from the PDAC.
Back in 1992, present Suf management took control of the company for one cent per share. They focused on diamonds, and acquired an extensive landholding in Canada first, then explored Uruguay, Brazil, Venezuela, the Ukraine, Greenland, Ellesmere Island, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Angola and Canada too.
Production in 1998 and 1999 is 143,000 carats from Angola, and 650,000 carats(total joint venture) from South Africa, all very high quality, high value diamonds. Suf is now one of the largest and most profitable diamond producers in the world. Suf's share of production from SA in 1999 expected to be 450,000 carats.
In SA, the fissures, blows, gravels and circular anomalies scattered over many miles across the farms are proving to all be connected. So a 500 meter long fissure in the east of the property, separated by several kilometers from another one to the west, are connected in between by fissures, potential pipes and blows. The property is open in all directions, and there are several of these fissures. The Leopard fissure may be 20 kms long and there may be 1 and possibly another similar fissure in the north. Average values of all sampled fissures continue to be in the $110 - 130 US/carat range.
In Angola in 1999, Suf will concentrate on processing a bulk sample from its 51% owned and managed 162 hectare Camafuca kimberlite pipe. Suf is investigating the feasibility of low-cost dredging operation at Camafuca on the high grade portions of the pipe.
Canada exploration has been disappointing to date, but Suf is damned and determined to find a mine here, and will not stop until they do. It greatly irritates CJ that he has not found one yet.
They are clearly making up for Canadian lack of success in SA. CJ is amazed at their success there, and the good news keeps rolling in.
He said that Suf is now the 2nd largest producer of diamonds in South Africa, and the 4th largest diamond producer in the world and growing fast enough to be 3rd largest in the world this year.
russett, who is buying before the rest of the world finds out. |
