Diamond Fields International (DFI-T) said on Thursday that Overseas Private Investment Corp., a U.S. governmental agency, has confirmed its commitment to US$15 million in financing for DFI’s acquisition of a vessel to mine its Luderitz diamond concessions off the coast of Namibia.
OPIC has indicated that the financing will proceed without delay, and DFI plans to have the vessel, which will carry a dual 24-inch airlift mining system, set sail in March or April of next year.
DFI’s chairman Francis Waldron said in a prepared statement, “OPIC’s continued support for the company is a great endorsement of our sea diamonds project and its significant potential. We are grateful for their continuing efforts in assisting us in moving our project ahead.”
A shadow was cast over the financing late last week after DFI’s partner, South Africa’s Trans Hex Group terminated a joint venture covering 0.5% of DFI’s Mining Licence 111, including the Marshall Fork feature and the Diaz 12 zone of the Diaz Reef feature.
Trans Hex pulled its deep-water mining vessel, the Mv Namakwa, from the Marshall Fork deposit saying that recovery rates weren’t matching what DFI’s exploration work had identified, a complaint it said it originally lodged last November.
DFI countered saying Marshall Fork was returning grades exceeding those reported in its feasibility study.
Trans Hex’s termination came a surprise to DFI, as the two seemed to be getting along swimmingly having just recently recovered a 17-carat diamond from the Marshall Fork geological feature. The stone is reportedly the largest ever picked from the seabed in that particular region.
Between May 2001, when mining began, and March 31 of this year, the pair mined 26,800 carats from the Marshall Fork structure. The stones averaged 0.33 carat in weight.
Independent estimates place probable reserves at Marshall Fork at 1.4 million cubic metres averaging 0.3 carat per cubic metre. The reserve is spread over an area of 865,000 sq. metres.
Probable reserves at Diaz Reef are pegged at 3.6 million cubic metres averaging 0.13 carat per cubic metre, spread over an area of 2.13 million sq. metres. The Diaz 12 zone covers a portion of that structure.
The estimates employ a cutoff grade of 0.15 carat per sq. metre and a diamond price of US$175 per carat.
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