Afri-Can Marine Minerals completed the initial sampling program of its Block J marine diamond concession in Namibia on Dec. 22, 2001.
The program succeeded in collecting a total of 338 samples, surpassing its initial sampling target plan by 88 samples. The samples were collected from 29 anchor spreads over a sea-floor area of 728 square metres. Starting on Jan. 8, 2001, the final sorting of the samples is being conducted by De Beers Marine at its Windhoek office in Namibia. The final results will be known with the submission of a final report by De Beers Marine. This initial sampling phase will provide important metallurgical, environmental and geotechnical information for the identification of diamondiferous areas.
Block J covers an area of 994 square kilometres measuring approximately 45 kilometres long by 21 kilometres 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 (Marine & Coastal, June 6, 2000).
