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Gold/Mining/Energy : DIAMONDWORKS DMW.v -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tony O who wrote (80)	6/22/1998 12:57:00 PM
From: Andras	Respond to of 413

Lots of news from Diamondworks VANCOUVER, June 22 /CNW/ - Bruce Walsham, Chairman, President and CEO of DiamondWorks Ltd., is pleased to announce that the company has begun commissioning the new diamond recovery plant at its Yetwene diamond mine in northeast Angola. The company expects to begin commercial production at Yetwene, the company's second diamond mine in Angola, by the end of this month. The Yetwene concession is one of Angola's largest, unworked alluvial diamond deposits. Geoventures (Pty) Limited, of South Africa, estimates that Yetwene contains a resource of approximately 1.8 million carats of high-value diamonds, based on historical sampling data by Diamang, a former Angolan mining consortium. The Yetwene plant is located on the east bank of the Chicapa River, approximately 100 kilometres north of DiamondWorks' Luo mine. DiamondWorks has now produced more than 65,000 carats from its Luo mine, which began commercial operations in July 1997. Mr. Walsham said that the company expects that the Yetwene mine will produce about 8,500 carats a month (approximately 100,000 carats a year) at an average value of between US$200 and US$250 a carat. These projections are based on the size of the new diamond recovery plant, the company's operating experience at its Luo mine, and sampling and diamond valuation work conducted at Yetwene by DiamondWorks and by Diamang. The Yetwene mine was completed on schedule and under budget, at a construction capital cost of approximately US$9.1 million. The new, 100-tonne-per-hour diamond recovery plant includes a Bateman Van Eck & Lurie 50-tonne-per-hour Dense Media Separation plant and X-ray sortex machine for final diamond recovery. ''We are delighted that construction of the plant at Yetwene proceeded as planned. We have an excellent operating team in place at the mine and we believe that the Yetwene mine will be a steady and substantial producer of gem diamonds for many years to come. The commencement of operations at the Yetwene mine is an important milestone in the development of our company. The addition of production from Yetwene should more than double our production of high-quality, Angolan alluvial diamonds, and will assist in placing the company among the world's leading diamond producers.'' Mr. Walsham said. The current diamond resource at Yetwene is sufficient for more than 10 years of production. Only a small portion of the 550-square-kilometre Yetwene concession has been explored and DiamondWorks believes there is excellent potential to add to the estimated diamond resources. The company is planning to add a second diamond plant at Yetwene in early 1999, to further increase production levels. DiamondWorks is the operator of the Yetwene mine and will receive 50% of the net profits, as well as preferential payback of funds advanced for capital expenditures. DiamondWorks' joint venture partners are two private Angolan companies. As is the case at the Luo mine, DiamondWorks will market the diamonds produced from Yetwene in Antwerp, Belgium, in partnership with Endiama Selling Corporation, the marketing arm of Endiama, Angola's state diamond company. DiamondWorks expects that the combined alluvial production from the Luo and Yetwene mines will total approximately 180,000 carats a year, placing the company among the top three or four publicly-listed, diamond-producing companies in the world. Additional production is expected to come later this year from planned bulk sampling/test production operations at the company's Camatchia (Angola), Koidu (Sierra Leone) and Kao (Lesotho) kimberlite pipes. DiamondWorks also has interests in a number of other mineral properties in Sierra Leone, Canada, China and Venezuela. Happy investing, Andras