The
government of the Republic of Namibia has granted Diamond Fields International Ltd.’s application for renewal of its mining licence ML32 with
respect to diamonds and precious minerals north of Luderitz. The licence
has been reissued to a 70-per-cent-owned, subsidiary-owned company of Diamond
Fields International, the Namibian Diamond Company.
The licence covers an area of more than 17,600 hectares and extends
from Luderitz to the Galdovia Reef along the Namibian Coast from the
low water mark to approximately the 45-metre bathymetric contour. The
licence has been renewed for a period of 10 years. The concession has
historically produced over 88,000 carats from shallow-water, small-boat
diver operations and hosts part of the Boat Bay gravel bodies that
extend to the adjacent mid-water mining concession of ML111, also
held by Diamond Fields. Sampling undertaken by the company has
outlined a potential inferred mineralized resource of 42 million cubic
metres within the Boat Bay gravels, representing the largest known
potential marine diamond resource within the company’s marine diamond
concessions. The shallow water reaches of the concession are currently
being mined under contract by independent small-boat operations.
Commenting on the licence renewal, Ian Ransome, the chief executive officer of Diamond
Fields, noted, “ML32 is important in so much that it not only houses part
of the Boat Bay gravel bodies, but has the potential to deploy mining
platforms in the shallow water reaches, which have historically yielded
good diamond productions, similar to those successfully tested in the
NamDeb concessions.”
The geological and technical information in this press release has been
compiled and reviewed by Ian Ransome, BSc (honours) geology, PriSciNat. Mr. Ransome is the CEO for Diamond Fields International, is a
registered geological scientist with the South African Council for
Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP) and is thus a qualified person
under NI 43-101 of the Canadian Securities Administrators.
