Diamond Fields International Ltd. has entered into a two-year lease with an option to purchase a new marine sampling and mining technology, the Sea Diamond Miner, designed and built in South Africa. Under the terms of the deal, Diamond Fields must pay a licence fee for two years and can acquire full ownership of the patent for the tool by paying $400,000 (U.S.) in a combination of stock and cash within two years of the agreement.
The Sea Diamond Miner is a self-contained suction dredge. A scalable tool that has been shown in trials to be an effective and cost-efficient method for lifting diamondiferous seabed gravels. Modelled excavation rates rival the production of larger and more expensive drilling and crawler-based excavation methods. By lowering production costs, Diamond Fields may excavate lower-grade areas and remine areas already passed over by more costly and less efficient tools.
The tool creates a strong seabed parallel current that scours the sediment and underlying footwall on the seabed. This action cleans the seabed within the tool footprint as well as releasing diamonds from small gullies and cracks in the rough Precambrian footwall that underlies DFI’s diamond deposits in the Luderitz Bay concession area. Initial sea trials indicate the tool has exceptional excavation capability and creates an autogenous abrasive action that can cut semi-indurated clay and sand horizons providing access to the diamonds trapped beneath such false footwall horizons that are largely unrecoverable by current mining technologies.
The tool is lightweight and can be deployed from vessels across the spectrum of marine diamond mining in water depths between 10 metres and 200 metres.
Roger Daniel, director of operations for Diamond Fields, said: “The Sea Diamond Miner offers a cost saving on operations and low-maintenance requirements due to its relatively simple design and readily available components. This technology offers the possibility of taking the marine diamond mining industry to a new level by lowering costs and raising efficiency. It should increase our mining efficiency and open up the mining of inshore areas too deep for diver operations and too shallow for larger vessels. The acquisition of this technology will be a great addition to our marine diamond operations.”
Diamond Fields plans to conduct sea trials on the tool to perfect deployment and recovery, and to improve its operating efficiency. Plans also include using it in sampling programs on its EPL1607 and ML32 concessions. Further development may include scaling the tool up for deployment in sampling and mining mode from Diamond Fields’ ship the DF Discoverer, as well as contracting the technology out to other marine diamond miners.
WARNING: The company relies upon litigation protection for “forward-looking” statements.
