Elkedra Announces 7th Diamond Sale Results
February 13 2007 - 2:00AM
UK Regulatory
MEDIA RELEASE TUESDAY, 13 FEBRUARY 2007
ELKEDRA DIAMONDS NL
ELKEDRA ANNOUNCES 7TH DIAMOND SALE RESULTS
Elkedra is pleased to announce the results of its seventh diamond sale since
start-up of the Chapada mine, with the latest independent valuation of
production for the period 9 January through to 5 February 2007 achieving an
average price of US$367/ct for total revenue of US$642,120. This parcel of
1,748 carats consisted of 3,129 stones with an average stone size of 0.56 cts /
stone. The largest single value stone of 12.12 carats was valued at US$ 3,500/
carat (US$42,420).
Since start-up in June 2006, the Chapada project has produced, to 5 February
2007, a total of 12,418 carats (25,097 stones), for a total value of
US$4,861,358.
Production results for the year to date are summarised below:
PRODUCTION STATISTICS
Production Plant Average Diamonds Average Average
Month Recovered Stone Value
Throughput Grade Size
per Carat
(bcm)1 (cts/
stone) (US$)
Stones Carats
Start up 114,707 0.038 10,114 4,338 0.43 382
to 30 Sep 06
Dec Qtr 154,630 0.038 10,581 5,974 0.56 406
January 07 - 49,352 0.036 3,158 1,761 0.56 374
Mth
Year to Date 318,689 0.038 23,853 12,073 0.51 392
(Note 1: bcm is insitu banked cubic metre in the mine)
The high rainfall in January has again impacted on mining productivity during
the month. The very wet gravels resulted in excess mining dilution, which has
also directly impacted on the grade achieved for the month. A number of belt
failures on the main rejects conveyor from the plant has also impacted on plant
production for the month.
The trialling of the new mining method reported in the December quarterly
report continued during January and has proved to be successful. This new
mining method, which is more efficient in heavy wet weather conditions, will be
fully implemented during February delivering benefits of improved mining
productivity and substantially reducing mining costs.
The second x-ray sorting machine was delivered to site and installed and
commissioned during the last week of January. This now completes all the
planned debottlenecking modifications to enable the processing plant to now run
continuously at or above original design capacity.
Exploration fieldwork is also scheduled to commence during February on the
Company's "Casca" tenement, which is in close proximity to the existing mining
tenements. Access agreements with a number of landowners within the tenement
area have been finalised and the exploration equipment and team assembled. It
is expected that results from this exploration work will start to become
available during the June quarter.
ENDS
Released by: On behalf of:
Jan Hope / Nicholas Read Mr Don Best
Jan Hope & Partners Executive Chairman
Telephone: (08) 9388-1474 Elkedra Diamonds NL
For further information contact
Sam Randazzo
Executive Director
Telephone: (08) 6380-2855
Web: www.elkedra.com.au
CHAPADA PROJECT - BACKGROUND
Located near the town of Chapada dos Guimar�es in Mato Grosso State, the
Chapada tenements cover a total of around 291 km2 adjacent to existing
watercourses in the Casca Basin and are prospective for diamondiferous alluvial
gravel terraces. Mining activities will initially focus on the Quilombo and
Peba Lagoinha reserve areas, which represent less than 10% of the Company's
total tenement holding in the region.
The region is an established tourism and agribusiness centre, with good
infrastructure and excellent access from Cuiaba, the regional capital centre.
Gem quality diamonds have been recovered in the area by local miners for over
50 years. In the early 1980's Rio Tinto plc (Rio) conducted substantial
exploration in the area including drilling and bulk sampling of the current
Chapada Project resource area. However, Rio was seeking to establish a larger
project including dredging of the lower portions of the Casca Basin which was
subsequently restricted by construction of a new dam.
The project contains probable reserves of 5.4 million BCM of drill delineated
gravels at a grade of 0.05 carats per bcm giving the project a 9-year life
based on processing 600,000 bcm per annum.
The diamondiferous gravels, which average 1.3 metres in thickness, are located
beneath an average of 4.5 metres of sand overburden - with extraction using
conventional excavator and truck mining techniques. The gravel is clearly
visible, with no blasting required and minimal dilution expected.
The diamond recovery processing plant comprises screening, heavy media
separation, magnetic separation and X-ray sorting in a secure area. Magnetic
separation machines have been installed to remove the high limonite content of
the gravels, which impeded economic exploitation in the past using traditional
gravity techniques.
- ENDS -
The resource information on the Chapada Alluvial Diamond Project has been
prepared in accordance with the 2004 edition of the Australasian Code for
Reporting Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (the "JORC
Code"). The term "Probable Reserve" is used as per its definition in the JORC
Code (available at www.jorc.org). The information is based on data compiled by
and reported upon by Mr Hugh Durey of Hugh Durey & Associates Pty Ltd. Mr Durey
is a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy and qualifies
as a Competent Person as defined in the JORC Code. Mr Durey consents to the
inclusion in this report of the matters in the form and context in which it
appears.
END
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