Afri-Can Marine Minerals has concluded an agreement with Gemfarm Investments (Pty.) Ltd. (GF) to conduct the first phase of the follow-up sampling program of its block J marine diamond concession, situated 105 kilometres north of Luderitz in Namibia.
The sampling program is scheduled to start on or about Oct. 15 and will run for 30 days. This program is a followup to the previous reconnaissance sampling which proved the presence of diamonds in different geological features within the concession. This first phase will be conducted on the paleo-surf zone (gravel waves) of feature No. 8. It provides for the collection of a minimum of 80 10-square-metre samples and two 100-square-metre bulk samples. The program will be carried out at a cost of $420,000 (U.S.), and includes mobilization and sorting operation costs.
The program is designed to achieve the following goals:
determine the continuity of mineralization along and across the features;
establish sufficient quantitative data for the features to support an inferred resource; and
establish preliminary data on potential mining economics.
The sampling will be conducted from the vessel mv Lady-S which has a gross tonnage of 1,054 tonnes and is equipped with a 50-tonne-per-hour dense medium separation plant. The sampling tools consist of one 60-centimetre-diameter airlift with a pumping capacity of 1,000 tonnes per hour. Furthermore, the airlift is equipped with a powerful jetting system.
GF manages a fleet consisting of three large mining vessels and four diver-assisted subcontractor vessels. The company and its associates have operated for 12 years as sampling and mining contractors of offshore diamond deposits. During that period, several major clients have been served in South Africa, Namibia, Australia, Sierra Leone and Russia. In Namibia, its main client is Namdeb (joint venture between the Namibian government and De Beers).
Feature No. 8 stands at 125 metres below sea level and is a paleo-surf zone feature that extends over an area of 11.7 million square metres, of which two million square metres have been proven to carry weakly cemented diamondiferous conglomerate called gravel waves. Afri-Can is the first company after Namdeb to discover a gravel waves deposit. From its gravel waves deposit, Namdeb is currently mining about 600,000 carats of gem-quality diamonds per year.
From the previous reconnaissance sampling of block J, 23 diamonds were recovered from 338 samples. Four of these diamonds were recovered from feature No. 8 of which the largest stone was 0.64 of a carat. In spite of the fact that the sample size was small for sampling marine diamond deposits (2.1 square metres), one of the samples recovered in feature No. 8 contained more than one diamond. This is most significant as it proves that concentrations of diamonds occur in the feature.
Block J is the subject of a joint venture between Afri-Can and Woduna Mining Holding (Pty.) Ltd., in terms of which Afri-Can has the right to acquire a controlling interest of 70 per cent. Currently, Afri-Can owns 60 per cent of the concession.
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, N.S., and Mercury Islands (Marine & Coastal, June 6, 2000).
WARNING: The company relies upon litigation protection for “forward-looking” statements.
