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Gold/Mining/Energy : Precious and Base Metal Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stephen O who wrote (28335)	3/2/2004 1:33:49 PM
From: bmccra	Respond to of 39344

Southern Era is primarily a South Africa PGM play. They have the Klipspringer Diamond mine, but mining has been suspended (announced Dec 31st, 2003) due to marginal economics on the current strength of the rand. They also have a fairly extensive exploration portfolio, including an announced discovery of an extensive gold anomaly in Gabon this past fall. All of their development and exploration projects are summarized in this press release: globeinvestor.com It is the PGM ounces that make Southern Era interesting to me, with the diamonds and exploration portfolio a bonus. 15.6 million PGM ounces are directly attributable to SouthernEra at the Messina Platinum Project, and they also have a 100% interest in the Millennium Platinum Project, comprised of the farms Blauuwbank 168 JS, Rietkloof 166 JS and Haakdoorndraai 169 JS. An indicated mineral resource of 30.6 million tonnes UG2, at a grade of 3.76g/t (5PGE+Au), representing approximately 3.7 million ounces PGMs, has been declared for farms Blauuwbank and Rietkloof. The excerpts from a July 2003 press release describe the aspects that interest me in terms of the production profile at Messina: “The Dwaalkop Section is one of four phases that comprise the Greater Messina Platinum Project. With two platinum rich reefs striking approximately 20 kilometers, the Greater Messina has a declared resource of 24.38 million ounces of five platinum group elements and gold (5PGE+Au). This resource has been declared to a depth of 1,000 meters. Drilling at the Greater Messina to a depth of 1,550 meters indicates that the reefs are open to depth, although it will take approximately 30 years to mine the resource to a depth of 1,000 meters. At the Phase 1 (Voorspoed Section), the 120,000 tonne per month mine was commissioned during the fourth quarter of last year. Underground development to support the 120,000 tonne per month production rate is currently underway, with the 40,000 tonne per month target having been achieved at the end of the second quarter. At full production, the Phase 1 mine will produce approximately 200,000 ounces of 5PGE+Au at a cash margin of approximately $165 per ounce. At the Phase 2 (Doornvlei Section), a bankable feasibility study was completed by SRK Consulting in mid-2002. The mining license for Phase 2 was issued last June. In view of the uniform continuity of the two platinum rich reefs across the 10.6-kilometer strike of Phases 2 and 3, consideration is being given to their joint development. A scoping study undertaken by SRK Consulting recommends this. It is expected that this will be confirmed by the feasibility study currently underway, which will be completed at the beginning of 2004. Based on the Phase 2/3 scoping study, it is anticipated that a 240,000 tonne per month mine will be built to access the combined 15.86 million ounce resource at these two phases. This should support annual production in excess of 340,000 ounces of 5PGE+Au for a period of approximately 30 years. At the Phase 4 (Zebediela Section), a pre-feasibility study is currently underway to upgrade the 3.17-million ounce inferred resource to the "measured" category. Following completion of this study at the end of this year, a bankable feasibility study at Phase 4 will commence in 2004. Once all four phases are commissioned, the Greater Messina is expected to support annual production of approximately 700,000 ounces of 5PGE+Au." globeinvestor.com b

To: Stephen O who wrote (28335)	3/2/2004 2:15:58 PM
From: Valuepro	Respond to of 39344

"How much in demand are they, when canada is finding diamonds all over the North." Well, SUF has diamond claims in Canada, too. That's where they began. In fact, founder Chris Jennings was the explorationist who staked the ground for Aber, but left to do similar work on his own account as CEO of SUF. That aside, the company has diamond claims in many other countries, and it should not matter to those efforts if an increasing amount of the world's supply is coming from Canada. Correct me if I'm wrong, but are there not only two producers currently in Canada, and another small one nearing production. Lot's of diamonds found, few economic sources so far.