Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Gold/Mining/Energy : ABER RESOURCES -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bob Fairchild who wrote (1416)	5/21/1999 1:34:00 PM
From: WillP	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 2006

Bob: Different units. I estimate (conservatively?) that one 1 carat stone is present in every tonne...but that only 1 in 7 are good "gems". That's the difference. Look at it another way. The average value of boart is $1 per carat or so. If the "gem quality" percentage of 15% is accurate for Diavik...and my independent calculations pretty much support it...then: Given a grade of 4.5 carats per tonne for the two main pipes, about 3.8 of that is junk worth $3.80 per tonne. The remaining 0.7 carats are worth $270 or so, or just under $400 per carat. That's all stone sizes, not just those over 1 carat. The bottom line...the Diavik gems are plentiful, and of good quality. Similar calculations for Ekati are also interesting. Apparently the equivalent "gem" percentage there is 30%, or double Diavik's. Their grade is roughly 1/4 Diavik's, and their production rate is double. 2 x 0.25 x 2 = 1, so Ekati and Diavik should produce the same numbers of quality diamonds. If you do the math, their quality of gems is no different than Diavik's. A really simplistic way to judge that is assign a value of zero to the junk. At $130 per carat and double Diavik's gem rate...Ekati stones would have a value of $65 per carat at Diavik's gem rate. Regards, WillP