Diamond Fields International Ltd. has signed a conditional purchase agreement with Pala Investments Ltd. and Austral Resources Ltd. for the purchase of the Beravina zircon deposit in Madagascar, subject to acceptance by the TSX Venture Exchange.
Pala and Austral collectively own 100 per cent of the issued shares of Action Mining Ltd., a Mauritius company and the parent company of the Madagascar entity holding the licence to the deposit. Under the terms of the agreement, Diamond Fields, through its wholly owned subsidiary Kimberley Overseas, will acquire 100 per cent of the issued shares of Action. In consideration therefor, DFI has agreed to pay Pala $300,000 (U.S.) ($391,878) cash and issue 3,265,650 common shares at a deemed price of two cents per share, and pay Austral $60,420 (U.S.) ($78,924) cash.
Beravina is a pegmatite-hosted hard rock zircon deposit located approximately 325 kilometres west-northwest of Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. The deposit is characterized by a small-surface footprint, with the mineralized pegmatite describing a steeply dipping cone-shaped structure. A historical independent JORC-compliant geological resource estimate on the property undertaken by Badger Mining and Consulting (Pty.) Ltd. in 2012 estimated an indicated resource of 1.8 million tonnes at 29.5 per cent zircon, open at depth. While the estimate was a consideration in the decision to acquire the deposit, the company cautions that it is historical in nature and the company is not treating such resources as a current resource under NI 43-101. Investors are further cautioned that a qualified person has not yet completed sufficient work to be able to verify the historical resources, and therefore they should not be relied upon. Limited metallurgical work undertaken to date indicates that the zircon ore can be liberated and concentrated by crushing and gravity separation.
The geological and technical information in this press release has been compiled and reviewed by Ian Ransome, BSc (honours) geology, professional natural scientist. Mr. Ransome is a director of Diamond Fields and 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.
