xmortal
- 23 Nov 2003 11:23
This Canadian Company is to be floated in AIM beginning of Dec. See my research below which is encouraging, especially the acquistion of land from De Beers!!!. Also check its website below which displays its price movement. Upwards!! Apart from this let me tell you a bit about history which I learnt at school. Most of the income in Portugal during the 16th & 17th century came from colonial Brazil thru the exploitation of precious gems, mainly diamonds. The main areas of exploitation were Minais Gerais and thru alluvial wash. Even now, Brazil is the main exporter of diamonds and other precious gems in Latin America. I have a good gut feeling on this one.
see www.braziliandiamonds.com.
PS. I like to see more people doing research on new flotations, we never know what we may find!
Brazilian Diamonds Completes Minerao do Sul Acquisition from De Beers
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Canastra 1 Development and Exploration Update
Brazilian Diamonds Limited (formerly Black Swan Resources Ltd.) is pleased to announce that it has now completed the last of the payments to De Beers in connection with its acquisition of Minerao do Sul Ltda. Included in the purchase was the Canastra 1 diamondiferous kimberlite and a portfolio of 49,000 hectares of kimberlite prospecting licenses in the Serra da Canastra region of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Under the terms of this acquisition, De Beers retained neither "back in" nor diamond marketing rights over either Canastra 1 or the other licence areas.
The Company's Canastra portfolio, comprising more than 100,000 hectares of licenses, is the primary focus of Brazilian Diamond activities and includes a program of exploration, delineation, and exploitation designed to establish Brazil's first commercial diamond production from the "Canastra 1" kimberlite. This program is anticipated to commence during the first half of 2004.
Brazilian Diamonds is currently preparing to begin trial mining of the Canastra 1 kimberlite, which previously yielded 5000 carats of diamonds when De Beers bulk sampled the pipe in 1998 to 2000.
A conceptual mine plan recently completed for Brazilian Diamonds by Gemcom Latin America indicated the Canastra 1 pipe could be mined with robust economics for more than 4 years, producing approximately 114,000 carats. The Gemcom study was based on De Beers' bulk sample results and diamond valuation of US$130/carat.
Subsequent to the completion of the Gemcom study, Brazilian Diamonds announced on October, 14, 2003 the results of an audited study of diamonds recovered from tailings from the De Beers bulk sample. The tailings test results indicate that 10 to 20% more carats were produced in the bulk test than were reported by De Beers and therefore assumed in the Gemcom study. It should be noted that a significant number of the stones recovered in this subsequent audit of these tailings were smaller in size than the diamonds in the original 5000 carat parcel from De Beers.
SGS-Lakefield, which assisted in the design and audit of the tailing test, has advised that Brazilian Diamonds can expect to recover these smaller stones during normal operations by continuing to apply industry best practices. This should add directly to the already robust economics of the proposed operation as demonstrated in the Gemcom conceptual study.
Permitting to enable transport of Brazilian Diamond's dense media separation plant to the "Canastra 1" site is now underway.
In parallel with the Company's preparations for trial mining of the "Canastra 1" pipe, Brazilian Diamonds has identified 6 drill-ready geophysical targets supported by indicator minerals (including macro and micro diamonds) on the same structural trend that controls emplacement of the "Canastra 1" pipe.
Approximately 15 kilometres from "Canastra 1", Brazilian Diamonds is preparing to drill test its large (21 hectare) "Canastra 8" kimberlite, which appears from geophysical surveys to comprise two coalescing pipes. The Company plans 5 deep drill holes to penetrate crater-fill deposits that cover the top of the kimberlite. 3D modeling of ground and airborne magnetics is being integrated with electromagnetic (EM), ground penetrating radar, and induced polarization (IP) surveys to insure the deep drill holes test all parts of the pipe. Additionally, the Company is advancing exploration on several newly identified geophysical targets in the near vicinity of "Canastra 8" and expects to drill test at least 4 of those targets in the first quarter of 2004.
In the next 2 to 3 months, Brazilian Diamonds Limited expects to produce several 1 to 5 tonne samples from each of a number of exposed kimberlites identified on its Canastra license portfolio. These samples will then be processed through the Company's recently acquired diamond laboratory in the town of Patos do Minas.
Tue Oct 14, 2003
Brazilian Diamonds Announced Results of Tailings Re-processing Audit.
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Brazilian Diamonds Limited (formerly Black Swan Resources Ltd.) is pleased to announce that it has now received the results from the Canastra 1 tailings re-processing audit conducted by SGS-Lakefield Research.
SGS-Lakefield recovered 572 diamonds weighing 35.81 carats (average stone size 0.06 carats) from the test which comprised kimberlite tailings recovered from the Canastra 1 pipe (Table 1). The four largest stones weighed 1.14 ct, 0.44 ct, 0.44 ct, and 0.32 ct, respectively.
SGS-Lakefield reports the recovered stones include a substantial portion of clear octahedral crystals. The value of the parcel will be reported when ongoing evaluations are completed. These diamonds add to the potential recovery that can be expected when Brazilian Diamonds commences trial mining of the Canastra 1 pipe in 2004.
Table 1: Diamonds per sieve class recovered by SGS-Lakefield from the audited tailings test.
The audited tailings test was conducted by Brazilian Diamonds beginning in May, 2003, with the methods and standard operating procedures designed in conjunction with SGS-Lakefield Project Metallurgist Stephen Cole, who also audited the test. The diamonds reported herein were then recovered by experienced diamond pickers at SGS-Lakefield Research's Ontario laboratory.
The tested tailings derive from a De Beers bulk sample of the Canastra 1 kimberlite conducted between 1999 and 2000. During this bulk sample, De Beers' recovered 5000 carats of diamonds from an estimated 20,000 tonnes of kimberlite (dry) using a dense media separation (DMS) plant on site. Processing included an x-ray fluorescence diamond recovery stage.
The tailings were produced from the DMS concentrate after processing through the x-ray diamond sorter, and thus is the material out of which De Beers recovered their 5000 carats. This tailings material has been stored securely in sealed drums on site since the bulk sample was completed.
Following the purchase of the Canastra 1 pipe from De Beers in 2002, Brazilian Diamonds decided to conduct this test to determine whether significantly more diamonds could be recovered from these tailings. The company began an audited test of the tailings, using a new diamond recovery plant featuring a Flowsort x-ray unit built and operated to best industry practice.
The SGS-Lakefield results reported herein are from approximately 5% of the total volume of tailings and demonstrate that significant numbers of diamond can be recovered from these tailings.
Size Distribution:
The size distribution is strongly skewed to small sizes, with 63% of the total recovered weight occurring in stones less than 0.10 ct. In comparison, the average stone size from the trial mining bulk sample is approximately 0.2 ct, and only about 35% of the total weight is less than 0.1 ct, based on the somewhat limited size distribution information reported by De Beers (Figure 1). The comparison between the audit and bulk sample size distributions is shown graphically in figure 1, where sieve diamond sizes increase to the right (higher sieve class numbers). The audit sample results have been converted to the sieve classes in figure 1 using average weights per class in order to compare with the size distribution data provided by De Beers.
Figure 1: Comparison of diamond size distribution between tails audit (open diamonds) and trial mining results (solid squares). Screen size classes are based on circular diamond sieves, following the limited size distribution data available. The original bulk sample diamonds were described and valued at $US130 per carat in 2001 by the De Beers Classification Center at the Harry Oppenheimer House in Kimberley, South Africa. The parcel, however, is not currently available for further analysis.
Calculated DMS Tails Grade by sample:
SGS-Lakefield's results covered three samples representing different lithologies within the Canastra 1 kimberlite (MK, TKB1, and MKBS-A) which have been processed during the audit test stage. Extrapolating the diamond recovery from these 3 samples (and assuming the processed tails drums are representative of the unprocessed drums) yields the following diamond concentrations for the tails samples ("Calculated DMS tails grade" in Table 2):
Table 2: Grade increase for different phases calculated by extrapolating audit sample, and using the dry tonne weights reported by De Beers. Note: The estimated 50% basalt in sample MK is not excluded in contrast to De Beers' reported sample grade.
These tails grades are roughly between 10 to 20% of the De Beers reported sample grades and are expected to add to the recovery during the Company's planned trial mining re-test of Canastra 1 to the extent that the small diamonds can be efficiently recovered. SGS-Lakefield believes that with continued application of industry best practice, Brazilian Diamonds will be able to effectively recover these small diamonds during their trial mining operation.
Although many of the stones are said to be of high quality, the dollar per carat value of these small sizes will inevitably be lower than the overall average value obtained from the De Beers trial mining test, and thus the calculated DMS trial mining grades will not simply be additive to the estimated $US130 per carat valuation. The Company plans to immediately obtain valuations of these DMS tailings diamonds to better estimate their potential addition to our trial mining revenues.
In light of the success of the Lakefield tailings audit the Company has begun to process a further 100 drums of the stored concentrate. Initial results from the first 41 drums treated to date indicate a significant number of stones are being recovered in line with the results achieved during the Lakefield audit.
The processing of these concentrates will add to the Company's level of understanding of the grade distribution throughout the Canastra 1 body which the Company is intending to commence trial mining in the second quarter of 2004.
Kenneth Judge, Chairman of Brazilian Diamonds said "These results have confirmed our expectations that the grade originally reported from the bulk sampling program would be upgraded once the presence of diamonds in the tailings was confirmed. This audit and re-testing program has concluded an important stage in our planing for the development of the Canastra 1 body for which development and operating license applications are in process with a view to the commencement of the operation in the second quarter of 2004."
xmortal
- 06 Dec 2003 13:37
- 9 of 11
God only know but most shares in small caps tend to rise depending or discoveries and mining feasibility. So far Hidefiled rose nearly 50% when gold rich veins were discovered. I invite you to read the RNS for hidefield and monterrico metals and see how the share price move upwards. The same happenend with Petrel Resources, African Diamonds, African Gold and African Eagle. I myself have Jubilee Platinum and monterrico metals and both been good to me!!! Last week Petrel Resources rose nearly 35% in two days.
Scottie
- 06 Dec 2003 16:06
- 10 of 11
It does sound promising xm will be watching on Monday and may buy in - depending on how much the MMs mark it up. If it goes the same way as MKD we could be in for some fun!