Stellar Diamonds has received a positive study on its 100 percent-owned 1.45 million carat Tongo Dyke-1 project, which boosted the net present value of the Sierra Leone project.
It said in a statement emailed to Rough & Polished that the study indicated a 42 percent increase in the project net present value to $75 million from the previous $53 million.
The company recently announced an increased resource average grade of 165cpht for Dyke-1, which if applied in the financial model and maintaining the $270 per carat modelled diamond value, would double the estimated net present value.
Stellar said there was a potential for 120,000 carats to be mined from an open pit development in the first three years of the mine life and for more than 1 million carats to be mined over the expected 16-year mine life, Stellar said.
“The possibility of generating early cash flow from surface mining at Tongo Dyke-1 in conjunction with underground mine development is a very attractive financial option,” said company chief executive Karl Smithson.
“…having recently commenced trial mining at our Baoulé project in Guinea to generate cash-flow before the end of 2014, we are delighted that we believe we have also found a route to early cash flow for Tongo and believe we are demonstrating our ability to deliver optimum value from our projects.”
Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished
