Diamond Fields International Ltd. has released its financial results for the year ended June 30, 2005. All amounts are in United States dollars.
The company reported revenues of $5,391,621. Operating costs, before vessel repair and maintenance, totalled $2,529,539, generating a gross margin of $2,862,082. After vessel repair and maintenance, general, administrative, and other income and expenses, the company reported a net loss for the year of $3,814,248, or approximately six cents per share.
During July to October, 2004, diamond mining under a joint venture with Samicor produced 31,910 carats (the company’s 50-per-cent share was 15,954 carats) from the Luderitz sea diamond concession (ML111). The company resumed mining operations during June of 2005 with its own mining vessel, the mv DF Discoverer, which was acquired in late 2004. Following its acquisition, the mv Discoverer underwent a program of refit and commissioning prior to being placed in service. To the end of September, 6,365 carats have been recovered by the mv Discoverer and three parcels of rough diamonds totalling 4,948 carats have been sold at an average price of $194 (U.S.) per carat for gross sale proceeds of $961,000 (U.S.), confirming market demand for the company’s high-quality Namibian product. Although ship operations have experienced periods of downtime owing to poor winter season weather conditions and on-board equipment issues, the company’s mining team continues to gain operational experience and Diamond Fields anticipates improved diamond recoveries. The company intends to increase future diamond production by improving the ship’s systems and pursuing the deployment of the new sea diamond miner (SDM) technology, as well as undertaking sampling to identify additional areas of high-grade resource.
During the summer, the company advanced its exploration project in Greenland by concluding two option agreements with Inco Ltd. on the Ammasalik Island nickel properties. Inco recently completed the summer season’s drilling program on the properties and Diamond Fields will provide shareholders with any material developments.
In Liberia, further sampling and analytical work followed up on the initial reconnaissance surveys on the Grand Gedeh (gold) and Grand Cape (diamonds/gold) properties. The Grand Gedeh concession in Central Liberia has yielded promising gold results from grid soil sampling over the Bar Tea Jam artisanal workings which measures about five kilometres in strike length. Results from sampling of the weathered bedrock in this area returned 26 soil samples that averaged 0.2 gram per tonne Au with one sample reporting 17.7 grams per tonne Au. This fall’s sampling program will be extended to cover the entire area of artisanal mining, followed by drilling of identified targets.
On the Grand Cape property which has long hosted artisanal miners recovering diamonds and which is adjacent to recent kimberlite discoveries on a concession held by another mining company, results in the Camp Alpha area have shown high levels of kimberlite-indicator minerals. The company plans to continue sampling and further define the prospect with a geophysics program this fall, followed by drilling.
In response to significant interest from the European market, the company is actively pursuing the listing of its shares on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in order to address its ship acquisition debt obligation and finance its business plan, including the potential acquisition of an additional marine mining/exploration vessel.
