Afri-Can Marine Minerals has concluded an agreement with De Beers Marine (Pty.) Ltd. (DBM) to conduct a reconnaissance sampling program of its Block J marine diamond concession, situated 105 kilometres north of Luderitz in Namibia.
The initial sampling program is scheduled to start on Nov. 20 and will run for 30 days. DBM has guaranteed to complete a minimum of 250 samples over a minimum of 20 anchor spreads. The sampling program provides for the collection of a minimum 540 square miles of gravels. The program will be carried at a cost of $548,000 (U.S.) and includes mobilization and sorting operation costs. The sampling will be conducted from the vessel MV Douglas Bay, which has a gross tonnage of 2,172 tonnes and is equipped with a sense medium separation plant of 20 tonnes per hour. The two sampling tools each consist of a 0.96-metre-diameter “mega-drill.” This initial sampling phase will provide important metallurgical, environmental and geotechnical information for the identification of diamondiferous areas.
Pierre Leveille, president of Afri-Can, stated, “We are very satisfied by this contract as all samples will be collected, processed and sorted by De Beers Marine according to their operational policies and security standards.”
Block J covers an area of 994 square kilometres measuring approximately 45 km long by 21 km wide in water depths ranging from 70 to 167 metres. The concession lies on the northern boundary of the known rich diamondiferous deposits currently being mined along the south and central Namibian west coast. To the south of the project, an inferred resource exceeding four million carats has been estimated for the region between Halifax and Mercury islands (source: Marine & Coastal, June 6, 2000).
