DIAMOND PAGE — SouthernEra bags more diamonds at Luo

The Luo alluvial diamond project continues to pump out diamonds for its owners.

SouthernEra Resources (SUF-T) reports that 3,385.5 carats of diamonds were recovered at the northeastern Angola project between Oct. 23 and Dec. 12, 1997.

While 1,703.3 carats were derived from a flood-plain area during 35 work days, another 1,682.2 carats were derived from the bed of a recently diverted river channel during 42 work days.

The average stone size for the flood-plain and riverbed diamonds is about 0.35 and 0.75 carat, respectively, with a number of stones weighing up to 8 carats.

While mining and processing are slated to resume at Luo in mid-January, crews are currently excavating a new drainage canal in order to divert a previously unmined section of the river to the north of the present diversion.

As well, upgrades are planned for the processing plant and further mechanization will be introduced into the river-diversion gravel-recovery operation to increase production.

SouthernEra holds a 35% interest in Luo’s flood-plain gravels and a 10% interest in its riverbed deposits, with the South-African firm Sphere Trading and the Angolan government splitting the remainder. SouthernEra has an agreement-in-principle with Sphere, whereby SouthernEra’s current interests will be replaced by a

30% interest in production from both the flood-plain and riverbed gravels.