Despite ongoing financial troubles,
The company known as Namco, which reported a staggering US$26-million loss for the first nine months of the year, has decided to focus on mining licences ML51 and 36A. It was on the former that the company’s NamSSol seabed crawler was damaged earlier this year, giving rise to its financial woes (T.N.M., Nov. 26/01).
As part of its recovery process, Namco has been sampling areas on 5,000- or 10,000-sq.-metre grid patterns to augment known reserves and resources. The program is being carried out using the new Wirth system — an advanced, self-contained 77-tonne rotary drill.
Between September and mid-November, Namco recovered 1,007 diamonds from 610,000 sq. metres spread across four features. The stones weigh 362.1 carats.
On licence ML51, 258 stones weighing 82.7 carats were recovered from 180,000 sq. metres of feature 19. Another 131 stones, weighing 43.9 carats, were recovered from 210,000 sq. metres of feature 18, which lies to the south. In all, 74 of the 103 samples taken yielded diamonds.
Namco says the results confirm the continuation of mineralization from an area of feature 19 that has yielded more than 400,000 carats to date. The extension stretches for at least 1.2 km to the south, on to feature 18, and may carry more than 0.5 carat per sq. metre in the first 600 metres. There, the channel averages 200 metres in width.
As for feature 18, Namco notes that portions are covered by more than 8 metres of sediment and would thus make mining difficult. Consequently, sampling there is being deferred to assess licence ML36A.
At licence 36A, which Namco acquired in 1999 through its takeover of Ocean Diamond Mining, sampling is focused on a basin from which more than 60,000 carats have been recovered using airlift technology. The basin is roughly 4 km long, between 300 and 600 metres wide and consists of at least three geological features.
At feature 5, 81 samples were extracted from an area measuring 210,000 sq. metres. Of those, 68 yielded 600 diamonds weighing a total of 224.5 carats. Sixteen samples returned in excess of 1 carat per sq. metre.
To the immediate south, at feature 6, three of the five samples yielded 18 diamonds. The stones weighed a total of 11 carats, for an average size of 0.61 carat per stone. The area sampled measured 10,000 sq. metres.
Namco says the results highlight a continuous zone of mineralization some 800 metres long by 400 metres wide, where the sediment cover averages 4 metres thick. Moreover, the average stone size is larger than those currently being mined at ML51.
“These results . . . demonstrate the very reason behind our purchase of ODM,” states Chief Executive Officer Alastair Holberton. “We have every expectation of more excellent results to come.”
Sampling continues
Grant ML36A lies about 100 km south of ML51. At last report, ML51 hosted a global resource of 1.56 million carats over an area measuring 3.57 million sq. metres. More than two-thirds are classified as inferred and include material from features 11, 18, 19 and 20. The remainder, excluded to features 19 and 20, is either measured or indicated material.
Within the measured and indicated resource is a probable reserve of 335,732 carats spread over 714,740 sq. metres. This excludes all material mined this year.
Resources are based on a cutoff grade of 0.1 carat per sq. metre, whereas reserves employ a 0.2-carat-per-sq.-metre cutoff grade.
Grant ML36A hosts 23,400 carats spread over more than 153,640 sq. metres. Roughly two-thirds is in the measured category, with the rest classified as inferred. The estimate is based on a cutoff grade of 0.05 carat per sq. metre.
Namco owns 12 mining licences off the coast of Namibia, namely the ML36A-J series, ML51 and ML103A. Next to ML51, ML103A hosts the largest probable reserve of some 184,099 carats, spread over 552,924 sq. metres.
Namco also owns, or has interests in, about 18,500 sq. km of exploration properties off the coasts of Namibia and South Africa. Resources are largest at ML51 and 103A, with the latter containing some 648,600 carats spread over 3.8 million sq. metres.
On Sept. 30, Namco had a working capital deficiency of US$28.9 million. The single largest item on the liability side was US$19.4 million in bank debt, though a moratorium against this debt was granted until Nov. 30.
Namco’s long-term debt stood at US$29.5 million.
Namco has just under 96 million shares issued and outstanding. The Leviev Group is its largest shareholder, with roughly 39%.
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