European Diamonds Plc (EPD: AIM) is a diamond exploration and development company with advanced projects in Finland and Lesotho.

In Finland, the company has explored a large part of the prospective Karelian Craton and identifed a number of kimberlite indicator trains. Kimberlites have been discovered in one of these areas and exploration continues in the others. Evaluation work on the promising Lahtojoki Pipe has begun with a 5,000 tonne bulk sample due to be collected before Easter 2005.

In Lesotho, European Diamonds holds a 25 year mining license to develop the Liqhobong diamondiferous kimberlites. The Liqhobong Project provides for the commencement of mining at 290,000 carats per annum from the end of 2004 from the Satellite Pipe and the evaluation of the adjacent large Main Pipe and start of a Feasibility Study in 2005.

European Diamonds will become a mid-tier diamond producer in 2005 and intends to grow through acquisition and in-house exploration. The experienced management and technical team of European Diamonds have a strong track record of discovery and a history of wealth creation for shareholders.



The Kingdom of Lesotho gained its independence from the UK in 1966 and is the only constitutional monarchy on the African continent. The country is a small, densely populated mountainous country situated in the east of the Republic of South Africa, which entirely encircles the country.

Diamonds in Lesotho
The country has long been known as a source of large, high quality diamonds, mostly from alluvial deposits. To date most of the country's diamond production has been derived from the Letseng-la-Terai deposit which was mined by De Beers between 1977-1981. Letseng has recently returned into production and is again producing high quality gems albeit on a modest scale. Apart from Letseng, the only other known significantly mineralised kimberlites in the country are the Liqhobong suite and the nearby lower grade Kao pipe all located about 40 kilometres west of Letseng also high in the Maluti mountains.





Finland project.

Project Highlights
Work undertaken by European Diamonds and the Geological Survey of Finland has proven that the Achaean-aged Karelian Craton is highly prospective for hard-rock diamond deposits.
European Diamonds currently have seven regional exploration projects in eastern and central Finland in addition to the Lathojoki project currently under evaluation.
The Company has recovered high quality kimberlite indicator minerals from all of the exploration projects and will continue with the field exploration of these areas in 2005.
Work on the Lentiira Project in central eastern Finland has identified a large kimberlite complex covering an area of some 160 square kilometres. Although the Company has recovered high quality indicator minerals and diamonds from the project area, to date only linear kimberlite dykes have been discovered.
None of the sampled dykes has proved to be the source of the highest quality indicators emanating from the highly prospective 'Railway' indicator train. Further assessment of this project will continue throughout 2005.





Corporate website : http://www.europeandiamondsplc.com/s/Home.asp

Shareholder info : http://www.europeandiamondsplc.com/s/InformationRequest.asp

At least it sounds like they want to speed up bringing the Main Pipe into production.
700,000 carats a year extra should improve anyones portfolio.

dibbles,

I agree!, this is excellent news IMO.


Stockdog,

I don't think it devalues the credibility of the report at all, I would imagine they are preserving capital by conducting it in-house, (so to speak) but that's just my opinion.

I don't think Mr. Doyle would risk his reputation, nor that of his company, personally, do you?

Why would anyone do a X-trade for 6000 shares?

Well this is superb news. To find out that part of Main is 3 to 4 times higher in grade than the area that was originally sampled puts a whole new perspective on the value of Main pipe.

What we need to do now is work out the size of this area, to see how it affects the overall value of the pipe. In the meanwhile, as they said, EPD will start looking at each of the other areas and sampling them. A rough model can then be constructed for each individual area and the value of the area extrapolated.

For the moment, it does suggest that one fifth of the pipe is a similar grade to Satellite. 3 to 4 times the original 17 cpht grade is 51 to 68 cpht. If we take that further and remember that we don't have dimensions and the other area grades (which could be similar and assuming an equal area size) we can work out a rough valuation for Main pipe, similar to the spreadsheet above:



It should be remembered that:

a) we don't as yet know if the grades are uniform throughout the area
b) we don't have the true grades for the other areas
c) we don't know the size of each area (but are assuming that they are equal)

So the calculations are extremely rough and no reliance can be placed upon them as yet. They are demonstrative only, to suggest the possible revisions to the Main pipe valuations.

Extrapolating the data to the DCF, we come out with a revised Main DCF value (including Satellite, but not including Finland) of 1.48

It should be remembered that these figures are very conservative and other DCF figure could be a great deal higher. These figures are my own opinion and no reliance should be placed upon them for investment purposes. They merely show the overall value that can be presently seen in EPD from my point of view.

To which Wendy replied as follows:


wdurham - 12 Oct'05 - 13:23 - 7097 of 7105

No, Anom -

"Well this is superb news. To find out that part of Main is 3 to 4 times higher in grade than the area that was originally sampled puts a whole new perspective on the value of Main pipe."

That is NOT what it says at all.

The UKREG announcement gives an indication that the spot where the 3 cores were taken COULD be higher in grade, as the samples contain significantly more microdiamonds.

This is extremely encouraging, and gives some small evidence for the eventual potential of 25 cpht overall from Main.

But to have produced the figures above on the results from just 3 drill holes, which sampled only 691 kg, and for which no grade has been estimated, is irresponsible in the extreme. Your figures are NOT "rough calculations" - they are utter and complete guesswork.

One could even call them an utter and complete ramp.

>Wdurham

I think you are deliberately under-estimating the importance of this RNS and falsely accusing me of an utter ramp, when I have made it crystal clear that no reliance can be placed on the figures for investment purposes as there are many unknowns that need to be resolved first.

The only true way to determine the grade of the K5 area is with a proper bulk sample. The company plans to do this in early 2006, when the revenue stream is flowing. But you are quite wrong to discount the data and suggest that the eventual potential is 25cpht, because they have not tested the other areas yet.

The original Minegem survey is now in question. Primarily because they missed so many diamonds in the bulk sample of Satellite. The pictures from the recent tailings work proves that the processing was not 100% efficient and maybe seriously underestimating the true grades of both Satellite and Main.



All that the data does suggest is that the K5 area might be considerably richer than previously suggested and validates the multiphasic theories about the pipe.

The previous Minegem bulk sample only revealed 259 micro-diamonds per tonne. The new K5 sample contained 1282 micro-diamonds per tonne. That is 4.94 times more than the old sample. EPD have suggested that the distribution is similar to Satellite. So it stands to reason that part of Main may very well be the same grade as Satellite or at least close to it.

Until they have sampled the other areas and defined them, we can not determine the overall grade for Main. We can only suggest how the valuations might be altered by a change in the value of one area only.

Even your figure of 25 cpht might be termed a ramp, because by using the lower figure of 3 times the carats in K5, the grade would be 23.16 cpht. Only if you consider the figure at 3.5 times the grade would it be 24.86 cpht.

As we have seen, the md analysis indicates nearly 5 times the number of diamonds. But you can not equate 5 times the md with 5 times the grade of carats. You and I know that very well.

The point is that all the figures for Main have so far been based on the grade of 16.2 cpht. If the figures were closer to Satellite at 69 cpht, that's 4.3 times the value originally proposed.

Nobody is suggesting that the grade is uniform. So it would be wrong to claim such. However, it is possible to extrapolate a 'rough' valuation based on one area being the same as Satellite and that is what I have done. I have made it perfectly clear that these figures are my own and should not be taken as fact. So I don't see any problem

What I do suggest is that your review of the RNS and my subsequent post is 'clouded' by your bad judgement on another share. You've found out that the company was not as good an investment as your thought it was and are now seeking to poke holes in my theories to try and accuse me of bad judgement.

Just because NML have been effectively neutered by the Angolan Government for trespassing, doesn't necessarily mean that you can have a go at the EPD RNS or my interpretation of it.

I've been prudent with my figures and only suggested an increase of 3 times the value, the lower figure, for the K5 area. Your 25 cpht grade suggest that you've given it 3.5 times the grade. Far more than me.
so who's the ramper then? - because it appears to be you

leave it out - Wendy why can't you state your numbers without attacking Anomalous', maybe even a hint of polite reference of respect for one man's view however different from your own - then us poor stupids can form our own opinion between the two - we don't need the bickering bit - it is so boring.

thanks

sd

More very encouraging news for holders with the announcement from Sunrise Diamonds (SDS) who are exploring an adjacent sector of the prospective Karelian Craton:-

October 13, 2005

MICRO-DIAMONDS FOUND IN NEW

KIMBERLITE CLUSTER AT KUUSAMO, FINLAND

5 Micro-Diamonds Recovered From Core Sample Of Kimberlite 45

Till Sampling Results Identify High Priority Diamond Indicator Mineral
Trains

Further Magnetic Targets Identified In Proximity To New Discoveries
________________________________________________________________________________


Sunrise Diamonds plc, ('Sunrise Diamonds' or 'the Company') is pleased to
announce that it has recovered five micro-diamonds from a drill core sample of
Kimberlite 45 at its Kuusamo exploration area in northern Finland where the
Company has discovered a new kimberlite cluster, with five separate kimberlites
identified to date.

The results confirm the diamond prospectivity of the Earth's mantle beneath the
Kuusamo project area, previously only inferred from indicator mineral chemistry,
and vindicate the Company's exploration strategy.

The five micro-diamonds were recovered from a sample of Kimberlite 45 weighing
25.6kg analysed at Kennecott's Laboratory in Canada (accredited to ISO/IEC
17025). All are fragments and have a longest axis between 0.27mm and 0.39mm.
Four are white and transparent with minimal resorption whilst one is grey and
transparent with no evident resorption.

Samples from a second kimberlite, Kimberlite 47, did not return micro-diamonds
but mineralogical work during the summer reveal it to be a higher-level
diatreme-type kimberlite, unlike Kimberlite 45 and the earlier discoveries at
Kuusamo which are all hypabyssal-type occurrences. Kimberlite 47 thus indicates
that the discovery of larger kimberlites is possible in the Kuusamo area as not
all of the pipes are eroded to their hypabyssal roots.

Till sampling during the summer has identified several trains of kimberlite
indicator minerals that need to be followed up with further sampling and
drilling. These include mineral trains containing diamond-diagnostic G10
pyrope-garnets, kimberlitic ilmenites, chrome diopsides and chromites and are of
a notably higher order than those associated with the kimberlite discoveries
made to date.

Kimberlites 45 and 47 were drilled solely on the basis of their magnetic
signature. The magnetic data from the areas surrounding these kimberlites has
now been re-processed and this has identified additional priority drill targets
in the vicinity of Kimberlites 45 and 47.

Commenting on the results, Sunrise Chairman Mr. Patrick Cheetham said today 'The
discovery of micro-diamonds at Kuusamo is a major milestone for Sunrise and has
been achieved on a very limited budget. We are look forward to the very real
possibility of further discoveries in this exciting new kimberlite field.'

>joe

Whilst I have no doubt that Sunrise will find more diamondiferous kimberlites, the data that's been produced here is encouraging, but not spectacular. It proves that Sunrise are on the right track and the previous sample chemistry was indicative of diamondiferous kimberlite. Half the problem for minexs is finding the blighters, let alone extracting them!

The sample was 5 md from 25.6 kg. That's 195 md/tonne. There was no mention of the distribution, so a grade can not be inferred. Besides, a sample so small would not really be suitable and couldn't tell us this information. We'd need to see more sampling.

I think the one point that is notable is that pipe 47 is a diatreme type. They've correctly pointed out that this does raise the possibility that there could be even larger kimberlites out there. The larger a kimberlites, the more likely that it can be extracted, even at low grades. We have to remember that this area of Finland was covered by glacier many many times. The kimberlite has been eroded in the process. So much of the ore has been carried away.

To my knowledge, Kuusamo is not near the EPD licenses. Sunrise do have a license close to Kaavi, near the EPD site of Lahtojoki, but as far as I know, EPD are not prospecting in the Kuusamo area. The reason I say this, is because the company has been extremely secretive about the location of Area 3 for obvious reasons.

Still, at the current price, Sunrise is a very good long term investment in my opinion and I would welcome anyone to have a look at their data. I do not hold, but might in the future. DYOR.

Charlemagne Capital (IOM) Limited have increased their holding from 9.57% to 11.5% over the last couple of months or so - seems someone likes these in a fairly significant way. What's holding them back after recent announcements?

sd

Thanks for the post Anomalous - knowledgeable and well reasoned.

From AD^FN

elliot66 - 11 Nov'05 - 22:54 - 7445 of 7447


Anom

"with probable extractions to date topping 30,000 carats, based on 2 full months since they started cutting fresh kimberlite at 15k per month (and that's a conservative estimate)".

I am a concerned holder:

1. If the company is 'stockpiling' when the market is trashing the shareprice then why not announce how many carats they have in stock, because that would be good news when it is very much needed. If EPD has big stocks what logical reason is there not to announce? So worst case is production has been crap and so actually EPD is selling all it has produced. Ok there might be 'stock' of minimal quantities that mean technically the market has not been mislead.

2. In the RNS the Company said its production was from 'previously worked kimberlite........not tailings and new diamonds' (paraphrasing). If previously worked kimberlite is not tailings what the hell is it? My uncle works in the diamond game and is worried about a company that does not seem to be able to get its basic terminology right.

3. From the RNS: "The implication of the new South African tax and other legislation
relating to the importation of rough diamonds to South Africa for sale are
currently unclear and the Company is reviewing further plans for marketing its
diamonds in Johannesburg".......

Is this more softening up for bad news?.......ie 'we might not be able to market diamonds in SA so that's another reason why we might announce in Jan that we are only selling a limited amount" rather than "production is lower than forecast and we don't have the diamonds to sell"?


4. The RNS again: All rough diamonds now being produced from the primary kimberlite currently being mined at Liqhobong are being stockpiled for the first major sale in Antwerp in January 2006 and an announcement in respect of this sale will be made after consultation with the Government of Lesotho.

More sftening up?.........ie we blame Lesotho sometime later that we are selling less diamonds than planned.

5 The RNS again: the Company's mining activities and
processing of primary kimberlite are continuing at planned rates, with full
capacity of 65 tonnes per hour set to be achieved by the end of the year.

Note how this does not say diamonds are being produced at planned rates, rather that kimberlite is going through the plant at planned rates. If I was epd and diamond production was at planned rates I would say so. What reason is there not to?


If anybody has rational answers to the above I am all ears. Even better if rational and I can be shown to be wrong.



Anomalous - 12 Nov'05 - 14:03 - 7446 of 7447

>elliot66

I maybe able to answer all of your questions.

1. Diamond companies are generally secretive about the stocks they hold, for a number of valid reasons.

Firstly and most obvious of all, they don't want criminals to find out as it might be too tempting a target to steal. Secondly they can't declare the cash equivalent of any stockpile until it has been valued.



They may have an idea of the amount of carats in weight, but it is deceptive to then use this to apply a value for the balance sheet or mkt cap, as the price of diamonds varies with the size of the individual stones, together with their clarity and colour. Even the majors whose security is considerably more robust, do not declare the exact amount they are holding at any one time.



I do agree that EPD could have worded the last RNS far better. There was much that could have been excluded and even included. It seems that they were either badly advised or someone was not aware of the result of their statement. By saying as little as they did, they invited others to speculate the worst.

One of the main reasons why the share price dropped from the 50p band earlier this year, was down to the lack of news. The market had expected a mine-start announcement by April at the very latest. When it did not arrive, they assumed that things were not on schedule and that further fund raising might be necessary.

Their failure to reassure the shareholders cost all of us a great deal of value. If the CEO wants to blame anyone for selling at 20p, then he should blame himself, as he carries ultimate responsibility for any lack of investor relations.

Getting back to your questions though, you can not read into the RNS that they are not producing diamonds or that they have attempted to mislead the market. There is ample evidence that the market prices for 'indian' diamonds (smaller than 25 points), has declined and it would not be in the best interests of the company as a whole, to sell while the prices are low.



Rubstone posted on the other BB that 'lower end goods' prices has softened. This doesn't necessarily mean that it will stay that way. Prices may improve and EPD may be able to sell a far larger parcel in the coming months.

2. EPD are using the terminology for their industry, but you may not be understanding what they mean, because you have mis-interpreted it. Again this is a failure in communications on EPD's part, because they have to assume that some of their investors are not savvy with the correct jargon. It would have been better if they had explained the source of the diamonds.

Previously worked kimberlite can mean material that was extracted for any number of reasons, such as;

A) for the drill samples

B) for the bulk samples

C) to clear the site for operations.

Minegem did two bulk samples, one of Satellite and the other of Main. They did recover a number of diamonds during these samples. The recent processing of the tailings recovered even more, because Minegem's equipment was not as efficient as the new installation set up by EPD. Remember that our new plant is virtually the Rolls Royce of processing plants, but purchased at the price of a Mini, or low end Mondeo!



I would guess that in this instance, when the company states that they are selling diamonds from previously worked kimberlite, they are referring to the diamonds recovered by Minegem in both bulk sample and the core samples. They need a representative parcel and 3,000 carats seems perfectly acceptable. If this is the bulk sample diamonds, then it will give us a pretty good clue as to the average carat price we might see in the future.

3. You have mis-interpreted the meaning here. It has not been clarified whether the new South African tax applies to diamonds being imported into the RSA for valuation and selling, followed by export out of the RSA to their buyer.

Liqhobong diamonds are not the produce of the Republic of South Africa, but of the Kingdom of Lesotho.

The Lesotho Royal Family - Princess Senate, Queen 'Masenate and King Letsie III

If the RSA law states that ALL diamonds exported from South Africa are subject to the 15% tax, regardless of their origin, then EPD will naturally export ALL the Liqhobong diamonds to Antwerp instead, to avoid paying the 15% out of their profits.

I'm afraid that the South African Government have shot themselves in the foot here. Despite the fact that there are still major deposits of diamonds in the RSA, all the new tax is doing is to encourage further development outside the RSA, whilst restricting the amount being exported from South Africa.

You're making assumptions about the switch which are unfounded. You simply can not read into EPD's announcement that the production is lower than expected, simply because they are reconsidering selling through Johannesburg. It is purely a matter of the 15%.

4. Again you are reading too much into the announcement. The Government of Lesotho GOL is EPD's partner in the project. The GOL provide the license for EPD to export the diamonds, together with the certification.



Naturally, the GOL are expecting cashflow from royalties, taxes and their share of the profits. They must be consulted to advise them why the company is intending to alter the amount exported in the first few parcels, because they must be interested to know when they can expect their first revenue.

The company has a valid reason for holding back. If they sold now, they might get a much lower price than waiting a month or so. The company has enough working capital, so they can wait a good while longer to see the prices stabilise. When the time is right, then they will take the parcels to the market. By the way, it is the GOL that makes up the parcels.



The company may extract the diamonds and hold them on-site until they have a reasonable amount, but they have to be processed by the GOL for (Kimberley) certification prior to export. If EPD wants to sell a smaller parcel, then they would have to consult with the GOL and arrange for the correct parcels sizes to be produced.

The company is not going to blame the GOL for selling less diamonds later on. You are mis-understanding the RNS.

5. You need to understand how a diamond producing company refers to it's operational rates and capacity.

Simply put, the rate at which kimberlite ore is processed is more important for operational reasons, than the rate at which diamonds are found. I know that sounds odd, because it is the diamonds that we are after. Let me explain.

As you may know, the distribution of diamonds in the rock is not completely even. Some areas may be richer in diamonds than others. That is why diamond companies have to do bulk samples and feasibility studies, to find the average 'grade' of diamonds. This is to determine if the rock is economic to mine.

When processing, they refer to the amount of kimberlite ore processed per hour rather than the diamonds recovered, because the quantity of rock maybe a constant, but the quantity of diamonds found can vary. This variation may not be huge, because the bulk sample has given them an idea of the amount of diamonds to expect, but when discussing the operational capacity or processing rate, the mining industry usually refers to the throughput of ore.



Just because they have followed industry convention and discussed ore processing rates, does not mean that you can interpret this to mean that they are not recovering the diamonds at the grades indicated by the previous exploration and feasibility work. If the company was producing far less, then this would be something they would have to report to the shareholders in due course, as it is price sensitive news. They have NOT reported this, so you can not assume that anything is wrong.

The RNS says that production is at planned rates at the moment. The company planned to slowly work up to full capacity in stages. They don't want to break the equipment and cause a temporary production shutdown for repairs by running before they can walk. The whole point of processing the tailings was not just because there were still diamonds in there, or that it was occupying space in the tailings dump that they needed for the newly processed fresh kimberlite. The tailings were 'soft' rock that had been processed once. It would put less strain on the equipment and enable them to bring the plant to maximum planned capacity, far earlier than if they went all out with fresh (hard) kimberlite from the start.



IMO, it might be far better for EPD if they held back their diamonds till they have a major parcel. A really big parcel, to take to Antwerp in December. The more press attention that the company gets, the liklier that the market will notice that EPD is finally generating huge volumes of cashflow and that the share price does not reflect the value of this revenue.

EPD's production is mostly lower end goods. The smaller stones that are below 1 carat and sent to India to be cut into tiny diamonds like these:



Any larger stones are going to cause a splash. Rubstone says that "good quality yellow diamonds will be well received." As you know, Liqhobong does produce quite a few yellow stones. They may not all be fancy colours, but they might attract reasonable prices.

As was seen in the previous posts, good quality fancies do attain very high prices. The higher the clarity, the better the price and I would not be surprised to hear from EPD in the next few months that they've either found some larger oversize or that they have some more fancies.



Either way, this news would cause a significant increase in the revenue and could cause a spurt of demand and speculation in the share price. You only have to remember what the news of Letseng's oversize did to all other diamond shares, to understand what this means. Actually holding EPD if such news breaks would be thrilling, because there could be intense speculation about their value. We shall see.

The AGM is on the 8th December .............. in ST.Albans!

Why on earth is it there, and in the morning too!

I guess they are trying to discourage as many potential attendees as possible!


Annual General Meeting


The Annual General Meeting will be held at the Cedar Room, St Michael's Manor,
Fishpool Street, St Albans, Herts AL3 4RY on Thursday, 8 December 2005 at 11.00
am.

Andy
According to Anom, their new Head Office is in St Albans

takahe,

I know, but why hold the AGM there?

MOST AGM's are in the city, probably due to the fact that all the brokers and analysts are resident there, so IMO it's extremely odd to hold an AGM in St. Albans.

I now it's not unheard of, there are of course other AGM's held outside the city, (EG TDM) but IMO if you want the people that count there, you have it where they prefer.

Portman Building Society moved their AGM from London to Bournemouth, and start it at 10:30 am, to lessen the number of attendees, fact!

Andy - at least they aren't wasting overhead expenditure - no travel, no room hire, less refreshments in St Albans. It really isn't so far to go, if you are a serious shareholder, by train from Kings X Thameslink. Nice day out to the ancient Roman city of Verulanium.

sd

stockdog,

I agree it's not far, but it takes time to travel there, and maybe for that reason alone these things are usually in the city, where the analysts and brokers are.

A business room hired for a couple of hours is relatively cheap, and a lot of AGM's only provide coffee anyway, so it can be done in the city very modestly.

Some brokers will provide a room, Starvest held theirs in the offices of Grant Thornton recently for example.

Why not have the AGM on video link for the city analysts & brokers ?

Here's the interesting bits from the phone call to EPD.

Firstly the RNSs. EPD have been generating releases that they consider (and we would as well) to be very upbeat about their prospects. The unfortunate thing is that the releases are being 'doctored' before they are put out on RNS. The nomad, broker or PR company are altering the text. The reason for this editing is apparently so that they conform to the standard required of RNSs.

The management have been as concerned as you, that the share price has not been moving at this news. Indeed, they've spoken with other mining engineers from the industry, who've been astonished at the achievements of EPD (under budget, difficult terrain, high quality set up and very large extraction capacity) and these engineers can't understand why the share price hasn't taken off either. So it does appear that the general downturn in the mining sector has been holding back some of the shares that should by all rights have gone ballistic.

To rectify the problem of the RNSs, as EPD can not change the Exchange rules, they are going to put out news releases to the wire services simultaneously as the RNS go out. The news releases will have all the data that the RNS misses out on. So it maybe a lot better to read the AFX or wire service report, after you've read the RNS.

Additionally, they are conscious of the need for more graphics. The engineers have been out with the cameras, taking numerous pictures of the site at work. Some have even taken MPEGs as I mentioned earlier. The company is planning to edit these together and put them out as a release or make them available on the website.

I was told a while back that new pictures were on the way, including some of the diamonds, the company has been holding some of these back for the Annual Report. Obviously I've pointed out that they would do better by releasing as much as they can in the meanwhile, so that the market can see what they are getting up to. So here you are...... new pictures from Liqhobong as on the EPD website.

Having a Blast at Satellite!

The mining engineers are having a lot of fun testing the various parts of Satellite. They are trying to find the area that yields the most diamonds in any one processing load as any new producer would. Satellite is nearly 100 metres in diameter, so there's a great deal of ground from which to chose the ore. IMO they are doing their level best to maximise the production.

Of course, as the company said before, they are still on single shift for the next month or so, so the plant is only operating for 8 hours a day but they do plan to step this up to the double shift as RNS'd. So any rumours that the company is not extracting what they said they would are unfounded. Everything is running according to the previously announced RNSs.

As a follow up to the posts I made about Kao, I asked if they had heard anything about their neighbours. The news is that apart from two security guards, nobody has been seen at the Kao kimberlite for nearly three weeks. The place looks deserted. There are rumours that the fees are due to be paid to renew the licenses soon. If they don't come up with the money, then Lesotho Diamond Corporation plc might lose control of their concession. This would leave a 20 hectare kimberlite up for grabs and you can tell who would be in a prime position to benefit.

The DMS plant in operation

EPD do have spare capacity at the Satellite plant. They are planning to only work two shifts of 8 hours = 16 hours per day. So there would be 8 hours spare for other processing. This would give economies of scale, if the plant were processing a bulk sample for elsewhere - such as Main............or even Kao! The upshot is that this may be an option that would be too sweet to pass on if it presents itself.

The Tailings Dam Wall under construction

The company is going to be at Indaba next year and will be showing off their wares to the industry. I guess that they will be one of the highlights of the show, along with FDI/DB and Petra/BHP and a few others. I doubt that there will be the same sort of visits as were arranged last year, but there maybe a few execs that might take a trip into the Highlands.

EPD are now established at St.Albans. They have moved office as I said they had last week. The carpets are in, the phones are in, the computers are connected and all they need are curtains! The website has been updated and you can note the new telephone numbers. Kerry said that they have to bring in their own tea and coffee for the moment! but things are progressing. They are planning to give everyone that comes to the AGM a great presentation. It may be a bit out of the way to come to St.Albans, but it's only 40 minutes by train and a 8 minute taxi ride. You won't be disappointed as they can fill you in on all the news and explain what they've done.

The management are as disappointed as you that the share price continues to squat at 20p when it should be closer to 70p or even 100p, but they are doing what they can to make this happen. You should be comforted by the fact that they are aware that if the company does make a huge splash by making a massive sale, then people will sit up and take notice of them.

De Beers did another massive sale of rough last week and flooded the market once again before Christmas. The word around the industry is that DB are trying to accumulate as much cash as they can for some reason. Only the board of DB know why for the moment, but it may have something to do with South African politics and the tax.

On the tax point, they are also uncertain about what the RSA will do about the tax re the sales on the Johannesburg bourse. So it might be that very few of the EPD parcels go there. They have completed their first tender and I'll write what I can here, but I've asked the management to write a more detailed explanation of the process. As usual, EPD have not passed anything about that would be considered price sensitive. So no I don't know how they got on. EPD are also aware that they need to explain the tender process to you, so that the shareholders can understand the figures.

The parcels are being made ready at Liqhobong, a GOL official prepares and Kimberley certifies them on-site. They are then taken with the presence of high security to Maseru, the Lesotho capital. From there, they catch a flight to JoBurg and a connecting flight onwards to Europe. As the goods are bonded into customs in Lesotho, there should not be any problem with the RSA export tax, even though they pass through RSA territory on the way. Of course any parcels that are sold in JoBurg, would be subject of the tax, but DB is doing their best to fight the tax on behalf of the industry.

Liqhobong Diamonds

Once in JoBurg and at the Bourse, the parcels are taken to cubicles within a large room. The walls of the cubicles have large two way mirrors, so the security guards outside can watch as the people inspecting the parcels open them and examine the rough. Anyone tendering has to give their name, company, address details etc and then can make a bid on the parcels they have inspected. This way, the company gets a mass of marketing data on the people who are most interested in the EPD produce.

This means that certain companies might be invited to tender for special parcels, if they are regular buyers. There is a healthy interest in yellow stones at the moment. Epd does have pictures of all this and I reckon they will explain better when they can. Obviously they will release the news on the sales as soon as everything is concluded.

One point that is notable though, is that they don't expect to sell everything out of an entire sight. Apparently the process is to parcel the diamonds of equal size into separate packets. So there might be a parcel of 1 carat stones, another of 50 point stones, another of 25 point etc. They may not sell all of these parcels at one sight. So if they took 3,000 carats to JoBurg, they might not sell all 3,000, but most of it. The rest would go back into the EPD stockpile for another day.

On the other hand, the prices may be better for some stones than others, or even worse than expected. It all depends on the market prices at the time. Because of the large De Beers sales, the prices are still relatively depressed. The polishers and retailers have been flooded with merchandise and they are quite short on cash. You may have seen reference to this on Diamond.net

Liqhobong diamonds

Liqhobong is apparently producing some beautiful octahedral stones. I'm sure that the more savvy amongst you realise what this means. It means that each rough when cut can yield a much larger finished diamond. Less waste means higher price. Of course the lower end goods or indian produce can be wasteful if the crystals are the wrong shape. You might only get a gemstone at 40% of the carat weight of the rough. But Liqhobong does seem to produce some nice octahedral product as you can see in the photos, so the prices might be better, or might not. It all depends on the market. But one thing is certain, the colour of the Liqhobong stones is certainly what the market is after at the moment. So we can expect to get a lot of visitors to the sights.

So that's all she wrote for the moment. If I can think of anything else we discussed, I'll put it in another post. But we will get larger and better explanations from EPD in wire releases AFTER each RNS. So keep watching in case one comes out.

The Liqhobong Site

By the way - ALL these pictures were from Liqhobong!

Anom,

I have been studying this picture, what size would you say the large one on the middle is?