Diamond Fields has awarded a contract for detailed design and
consultancy services to Seacore Limited. Seacore’s work will serve as part of
the final feasibility study for a mining operation at Diamond Fields’ 100-per-cent-owned sea diamond concessions near Luderitz, Namibia. Seacore is an
established marine drilling and civil engineering contractor based in Gweek,
Cornwall, U.K., and is a pre-eminent contractor in the industry for specialist
marine civil engineering works.
The work to be undertaken by Seacore will include:
establishment of the detailed design criteria and nominal operating
parameters of the mining tool;
finalization of the mining tool design;
sourcing of appropriate vessels;
determination of capital and operating costs to an accuracy of 10 per cent;
development of the basic design for a separate sampling tool; and,
assessment of the technical and start up risks associated with the
proposed mining system and vessel.
Seacore’s section of the final feasibility work is estimated to cost
$150,000 and is expected to be completed in 10 weeks.
Robert Goodden, managing director of Seacore, said: “We are excited by
the opportunity to adapt our ideas and technology for the sea diamond mining
business and look forward to a lasting relationship with Diamond Fields. We
are confident the detailed design work to be undertaken in the feasibility
stage will clearly demonstrate the viability of the Seacore system in its
application to marine diamond mining.” Mark Collins, Diamond Fields’ newly
appointed chief operating officer, added: “Seacore has the proven ability to
supply innovative technical solutions to marine engineering challenges. I am
pleased that we will be working together to aggressively advance our Namibian
project through the feasibility stage.”
Diamond Fields’ plan is to complete the final feasibility study within
the next five months. Diamond Fields is currently in discussions with other
third parties to provide services forming the other key components of the
feasibility study.
A scoping study recently completed by AGRA Simons estimated that diamond
mining could commence within one year of Diamond Fields’ formal decision to
proceed with an operation as outlined in their study. Seacore provided
conceptual mining tool design, mine planning and estimating services to the
scoping study. The findings of the study clearly support management’s belief
that the Diamond Fields concessions have the potential to host a highly
profitable sea diamond mining operation.
