Afri-Can Marine Minerals
Chased Namibian marine diamonds for fifteen years and never mined one
Former company2000 to 2019
Afri-Can Marine Minerals Corporation held offshore diamond concessions along the Namibian shelf from 2000. It sampled, it found diamonds, and it never reached production. Trading was halted in January 2015 when it missed an annual filing, its board resigned the same day, and it was finally delisted in March 2019 for unpaid listing fees.
It began life as a Ghana gold and diamond junior called Nora Exploration and renamed itself for the marine strategy in August 2000.
News and articles
Overview
- The corporate shell traces to Nora Exploration, a Montreal Exchange issuer with a news trail back to March 1991, which worked gold and diamond ground in Ghana, a Chilean gold property and a Namibian gemstone interest.
- The pivot came in November 1999, when it optioned up to 70% of Block J, a ~994 km² concession off Luderitz, and took the operator role. Incorporated federally in August 1984, it became Nora Exploration in 1991 and renamed itself Afri-Can Marine Minerals on March 27, 2000. It traded as AFA on the TSX Venture Exchange, with a Frankfurt line from October 2003.
- By its first annual report under the new name it claimed 28 marine concessions over 26,500 km², which it described as one of the four largest marine diamond positions in Namibia. Most of that ground was never worked.
- The first real work was geophysics rather than drilling: ~1,750 line-km across two blocks in 2000 and 2001 for about US$290,000, which identified seventeen prospective features in each.
- De Beers Marine did the first sampling, in late 2001, taking 338 samples from Block J for US$548,000 and recovering 23 gem-quality diamonds totalling 4.65 carats.
- The best result came in December 2002, when 25 samples on one feature returned 84 gem diamonds totalling 11.4 carats.
- The company diversified away from the seabed in 2004, acquiring interests in Namibian kimberlite pipes and then in the Haib copper deposit, which became a significant part of the story.
- A 2010 campaign on Block J returned 398 diamonds from 314 samples and supported an inferred estimate of 154,000 carats over 1.72 km².
- It ran out of money in late 2014. Its option over four Diamond Fields mining leases lapsed that March and was formally terminated in September, and its resource and reserve statements for those leases were retracted at the regulator’s request the same month.
The concessions
| Concession | Licence | Interest | Area | Water depth | What was found |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Block J, off Luderitz | EPL 2499 | 70%, earned by September 2002 | 994 km² | 70 to 167 m | 23 diamonds from 338 samples in 2001; 84 gem diamonds from 25 samples on one feature in 2002; 398 diamonds from 314 samples in 2010 |
| Block B, north of Luderitz | EPL 2491 | Joint venture with Together Quando | 269 km² | Surf zone to ~45 m | Geophysics only. Seventeen sites across six features. No sampling was ever reported. |
| Blocks K, M and N | EPL 2500, 2721 and 2503 | Options for 55% to 70% | ~1,000 km² each | 100 to 300 m | Optioned in 2000. Reconnaissance geophysics on one. No results ever published. |
| EPL 3403, south of Luderitz, adjoining the Debmarine licence | EPL 3403 | 20% of the licence holder, closed March 2013, with an option over the rest | ~800 km² | Sampled to 250 m | 84 diamonds from 341 samples in 2011 and 17 from 222 samples in 2012. Cumulatively 132 diamonds from 925 samples across all operators. |
| Four Diamond Fields mining leases north of Luderitz | ML 111 and three others | Option to earn 80%, never completed | 312 km² | 30 to 70 m | See the note below. The estimates published on this ground were retracted. |
What it actually found
The sampling results above are real recoveries, reported at the time. The resource and reserve statements are a different matter and must not be read as valid figures.
- In October 2013 the company published an estimate over the Diamond Fields leases of 413,000 carats indicated and 453,000 carats inferred, and in January 2014 a pre-feasibility study claiming 319,000 carats of probable reserves.
- On September 10, 2014, at the request of Quebec’s securities regulator, the company RETRACTED all of it, because the qualified person behind the estimates had never inspected the property. Those figures have no standing and are recorded here only because they were published.
- The option over that ground lapsed at the end of March 2014, was written off in the February 2014 accounts, and was formally terminated by the counterparty on September 22, 2014.
- The one estimate that was never retracted is the 2010 inferred figure on Block J: 154,000 carats over 1.72 km² at 0.09 carats per square metre, including a higher-grade zone of 78,000 carats at 0.20.
How it ended
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| March 2014 | The option over the four Diamond Fields leases lapses for lack of funds and is written off in the accounts. |
| Sept. 10, 2014 | The resource and reserve statements over those leases are retracted at the securities regulator’s request. |
| Sept. 22, 2014 | The counterparty formally terminates the agreement and says it will develop the leases itself. |
| Jan. 5, 2015 | Trading is halted at the open and a cease trade order is issued for a missed annual filing. The chief executive, the chief financial officer and two directors all resign the same day. The company also declines to exercise its remaining option over the Haib copper vehicle. |
| Mar. 22, 2019 | Final delisting at the close, for failure to pay listing maintenance fees. No news since. |
| After 2019 | Corporations Canada records the company as dissolved for non-compliance. |
At the end it had 91,527,864 shares outstanding, 118,733,804 fully diluted. The largest holder was a limited partnership with 13.66%, and insiders held ~1.4% between them.
Where the ground went
- The four mining leases returned to Diamond Fields International, which restarted mining on ML 111 in November 2018 using the same contractor Afri-Can had blamed for its own collapse, exporting 47,318 carats in 65 days, and sold that lease and two others to Jean Boulle Diamond Mines in November 2022. That company is also covered on this site.
- The 20% interest in the holder of EPL 3403 was all it ever acquired; the earn-in over the remaining 80% was never completed, and who holds that licence today is not established by any source read here.
- Block J was held 70% through a joint venture. Namibian exploration licences lapse if not renewed and the company was insolvent from late 2014, so the licence very likely reverted, but no source says so directly.
- Blocks B, K, M and N dropped out of the disclosure record long before the end.
- The Haib copper interest ran on separately. The partner earned 70% in 2011, and the company declined its last option in January 2015, retaining only contingent royalty rights.
Filing archive
The company reported in Canada as AFA until it was cease-traded, so the last audited position is its August 2013 year end. Its securities filings are mirrored here.