Jan 23 2013
Americas Diamond Corp. is pleased to announce plans for its pre-feasibility extraction work on the 15,700+ acre Natal Diamond concessions which it currently has under option.
On January 18, 2013, the Company announced the execution of an LOI with SUDAM Diamonds Ltd to acquire SUDAM's option over two diamond concessions that have benefitted from an investment of over $13,000,000 (USD), in addition to a state of the art processing and production facility on the site.
The Company now plans to implement a final program of bulk-sampling on the Natal I and II diamond concessions in the Guaniamo district of Bolivar State in Venezuela. The program has been designed to test the down-dip extensions of the Belmudez diamondiferous zone, which is the focus of the exploration.
The Company can report the site is drying out after a very heavy rain season. As the weather improves it allows earth moving to recommence, and both site and government roads to be re-furbished.
The main excavation work is expected to occur in two long declines, commencing at surface, trending roughly North-South down to approximately 25 meters below surface. The Company plans to carefully develop the trends to ensure the safety of the operators, with batter angles sufficiently flat to offset slumping. It is anticipated that approximately 50,000 tonnes of treatable material from each trench will be put through the diamond recovery plant. This exercise is expected to provide in excess of 5,000 carats, which number is widely recognized as providing enough of a sample to measure the style of a "diagnostic individual diamond population". From sampling to date, the Company believes the effort should produce between 10,000 and 20,000 carats in total.
The objective is to establish the parameters of the Belmudez zone, as to strike width and minimum depth, to calculate grade characteristics, diamond quality, size, spread and value, prior to a feasibility study. The results of this work will help determine the likely productivity and profitability of the project.
Providing the plant spares and vehicle parts arrive on time, the mining operation will commence in March, and treatment approximately one month later. The results of this program will be reported periodically, and may take up the majority of 2013, depending on weather and conditions underfoot.
The Company has further identified an arguably untested area to the Northeast of Belmudez with similar characteristics. The Company has determined that shallow testing of the zone is warranted and approximately 10,000 tonnes of material, to a preliminary depth of 1.5 meters, are also expected to be treated.
The program sequence is suggested as follows: Develop and treat the Northern decline. On completion, analyze all results, whilst treating the new prospect area after thorough plant cleansing. Based on the results and experiences of the Northern decline, develop and treat the Southern decline.
The program, as designed, has an operating budget set at between $1-2 million, with additional capital expenditures of approximately $250,000 in the first year. This will be followed by feasibility work, in a second year, which could require up to $2 million to complete.
"Our advisors and operations team have been working hard to put this plan together, and we are extremely excited to be able to announce these operations. We believe the program is warranted, and the possible magnitude of the primary deposit is considerable. We are confident this work will lead to a decision to go to production within the near term. The methodology and use of finances provides us with what we believe to be the most advantageous way forward for the company," stated Daniel Martinez, Chief Executive Officer, Americas Diamond Corp.