Toronto-based SouthernEra Resources (SUF-T) has attached a resource figure to the partly owned Camafuca diamond pipe in Angola’s Lunda Norte province.
Resources are pegged at 88 million cubic metres grading 0.3 carat per cubic metre, equivalent to 13.5 million carats of diamonds. Within this are contained 11.17 million cubic metres averaging 0.43 carat and 29 million cubic metres averaging 0.3 carat.
The resource is based on 78 large-diameter holes (from 1.25 to 1 metre) that were drilled from surface to a depth of 110 metres below surface.
SouthernEra notes that 50 ha of the 160-ha pipe was not accessible to this type of drilling and are therefore excluded from the resource calculation.
The company acquired a 51% interest in the Camafuca project in early 1997 and now holds an additional 14% on behalf of two separate companies. The remaining interest is divided between the Angolan state-owned diamond agency Empresa Nacional de Diamantes de Angola, with 20%, and a private Angolan mining company, with 15%.
The Camafuca pipe was discovered in 1952 and, over the next 13 years, was tested by 282 diamond and 68 large-diameter drill holes. The remaining 10 large-diameter holes were drilled earlier this year by SouthernEra.
In other news, the company has netted US$716,000 from the sale of 3,590 carats from its alluvial operations in Angola. An additional 4,000 carats have yet to be sold.
At Klipspringer, in neighboring South Africa, the company processed another 20,000 carats of diamonds, boosting total production to 71,453 carats. As well, a 1,921-tonne bulk sample from the newly discovered small Kudu pipe yielded 173 carats; the diamonds were valued at US$203 per carat.
SouthernEra is testing the pipe at depth with large-diameter reverse-circulation drilling.
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