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Gold/Mining/Energy : SOUTHERNERA (t.SUF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: VAUGHN who wrote (728)	3/17/1998 11:55:00 AM
From: Goalie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7235

Hello Vaughn: For those who do not have access to, or may miss later editions of CBC Newsworld's Business News, for a repeat of the show, here's a transcript (to the best of my shorthand ability) of the interview with Chris Jennings. (The questions have been abbreviated) ______________________________________________________________________ Questions from John Dawe; Answers by Chris Jennings: Q -- What about this new wrinkle... (re new company...)? A -- First of all, this concerns a very small part of the overall property position that we have. Unfortunately for us its a very valuable part; its 400 hectars of 50,000. What happened was that when we started investigating mineral rights, we found that there were private registered owners who had registered the property in 1920. When we researched the estates of the four people who had registered this, we found no trace of them passing those mineral rights unto their descendants. We then resorted to the law which caters exactly for this; asked the Minister to grant us under Section 17 (of the Mining Act) those mineral rights so that we could go ahead and mine them. Q -- New wrinkle... they have set up a company... what does that pose for you? A -- Well, its a totally new dimension and was unexpected by us. They got around the need to subdivide mineral rights and the necessity of the Minister to agree to those subdivisions by forming a company. They claim to have registered the mineral rights in the name of this new company. So we in turn have to seek a new dimension to counteract and look at the underlying legalities of how they've done this. So we've asked (the Court) for leave to postpone the proceedings while we investigate this new dimension they caused. Q -- This came up, of course, after you got those terrific drill results...? A -- Of course... Q -- How does this affect the bottom line.... you had early projection of revenues that are pretty astounding... you're hoping to become the second largest diamond producer in South Africa...? A -- Yes, if we can't sort it out it will undoubtedly affect our bottom line. We're mining something that by world standards is very rich in diamonds that are also very high in value (Klipspringer)... But it will ... this thing we're mining is half the grade, however, we own it 100 per cent; in the other one (M1) we are earning 65 per cent. So we get bigger revenue but its not as good. But its still... we will be producing 30- to 40-thousand carats a month, so its quite spectacular. Q -- As for the disputed property.... its still better to have half a pie.... A -- We are hoping that we'll end up mining this; we are hoping this will be the case in a couple of months or less, but we can't guarantee that... Q -- About the projects in Angola.... A -- We've produced about 23,000 carats of extremely high-valued stones, at $350 (U.S.) a carat, and we expect to more than double that this year. We've found a 106-carat beautiful diamond the other day, and things are going well despite a very heavy rainy season caused by El Nino this year. Q -- The government is stable in Angola? A -- The government has improved; we think the govt is much more stable than when we moved in there two years ago. There's been a big improvement in the political situation. And, of course, we have a very large pipe (Camafuca) that could be very big money down the road for SouthernEra. Q -- Re his quote at PDAC about hoping to hit the "jackpot" in Canada...drilling at Munn Lake? A -- We start on the first of April at Munn Lake. We are very, very confident that we have a chance of a discovery. These things are small, elusive, very rich pipes and we stand a real chance. Our partners, Kennecott, are spending $4 million drilling on our properties up there (in the NWT) as well. So there's about a $5.5 million program on our properties coming up this year in Canada. So maybe this is our year in Canada. Q -- I wish you the best of luck.... you've been through a lot lately.. I hope it hasn't shattered your dream....? A -- No, it hasn't. We're survivors and we're going to survive... Thank you. ______________________________________________________________________