Stellar Diamonds has recorded a 63 percent increase in the resource at its Tongo kimberlite dyke project in eastern Sierra Leone.
It said in a statement emailed to Rough & Polished that the inferred resource at Dyke-1 was now 1.074 million carats at a grade of 120 carats per hundred tonnes using a 1.0mm cut-off.
“This has been achieved from successful drilling along its 2.5km strike to depths below 300 metres and modelling that confirmed the continuity of the high diamond grade of 120cpht with depth,” said company chief executive Karl Smithson.
He said that the average diamond value remained as previously modelled in March 2012 at about $248 per carat, giving a modelled in-situ kimberlite value of almost $300/t and a modelled in-situ resource value of approximately $266 million.
“Tongo Dyke-1 therefore has the potential to be a high value, high quality growth asset for the company,” said Smithson.
“Additional resource potential exists from other nearby kimberlite dykes, including the 1km long Dyke-4 which has previously been bulk sampled and returned a diamond grade estimate of 110cpht and an estimated average diamond value of $100 per carat.”
Smithson said the next phase of work on Dyke-1 would be moving towards conceptual economic scoping and thereafter pre-feasibility studies.
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
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