Firestone Diamonds plc is a UK-based international diamond mining and exploration company with operations in the Namaqualand region of South Africa and Botswana. Namaqualand, which is located on the west coast of South Africa, has been one of the world's largest alluvial diamond producing regions for the past 60 years, with total production to date estimated to be worth more than $3 billion. Botswana is the world's largest producer of diamonds by value, with annual production of over 20 million carats worth over $1.6 billion.

Firestones strategy has been to build a portfolio comprising advanced development and production projects to provide sustainable cash flow to fund ongoing exploration programmes and to provide an early return on investment, together with large scale exploration projects which have the potential to yield significant reserves of gem quality diamonds.

The company operates the Avontuur Mine and the Oena Mine of Namaqualand, which produces high quality alluvial diamonds, and has a growing portfolio of advanced and early stage exploration projects in known diamond producing areas in Namaqualand and Botswana.



Since 1996 the company has increased reserves and resources more than thirty two times from 34,000 carats to over 1.1 million carats at present, with an estimated gross value of approximately 260 million. Firestone is debt free and well funded and has a highly qualified management team with extensive experience in the financing and development of diamond and other natural resource projects. Firestone is quoted on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange and trades under the symbol FDI.L.

Firestone also has an exploration project in the USA.



Main Mining Pit, Avontuur Mine, Namaqualand, South Africa.






For FDI Corporate information : http://www.firestonediamonds.com/frcorporate.htm

For FDI homepage : http://www.firestonediamonds.com/index.htm

Firestone Dimaonds shares in issue: 65m 20p Ords

Firestone Diamonds PLC - Major Shareholders

Major Shareholders ---- Amount --- % Holding
Elfin Trust Company Ltd 7,200,000 16.68
Aurora Investment Trust 7,200,000 16.68
Gartmore Investment Mgt 5,418,116 12.56

Amities/ A mere reiteration of your sentiments queen1 reg the negative comments of sir wish a very lot made on the 8th march ; and one i regard as a load of utter twaddle .Much the same was said when FDI with seemingly indecent haste moved from 40p to over 100p last summer.To my mind FDI is the real gem of the diamond industry; and no-one can tell me of a mining company who not so long ago turned over a mere 1m stg and yet showed a profit a tad in excess of 300,000. This old chestnut As regards the recent rise lt was inevitable that such a prolific rise of late in s/p of FDI, and in such a short a period of time, would invite equally big profit taking. This of course , is what occured, and may have been the agenda all along when taken in light of todays very exiting RNS .ln addition it also appears to be a big buyer in the market dealing out of market hours and in tranches of 10,000. This fact is especially bourne out by todays ( Friday-18th march ) trading where the same anonomous party accumulated over 140,000 shares out of hours at a full 5p above mid price @ 175p ; and then added a further 100,000 ( all in tranches of 10,000) declared by the market at approx 3-45 . . No support ? -Utter tosh . And what with todays positive RNS which in itself lends a tangible bridghead of support @ 150+ plus i think it would be pure utter folly to sell now juste as the saga of this old chestnut is begining to unfurl and the companys true fiscal potential is facing realization . lt has so many irons in the fire-as listed so extensively by Andy that i need say no more - and i strongly believe that certain of thier advanced projects will pay huge rewards for holders in the not so distant future .But for those who stay the course will be a case of patting thier own backs in self congragulation . l hold quite a few from 42p, 64p, 90p, 115p and 162p . a'bientot /sois sages ./ faires attention ,,,,,@+ J,,,lncidentally is this the same Andy who waxed lyrical over GFM @ 2p during the latter days of the hi tec boom sell off....??? ,,4 years on; and i still hold ,,but not my original 500,000 ,but ones bought at much higher prices later on in their development -from 9p to 27p. l see the as one of the star performers of 2005 ! ln fact i tipped them on Motley Fool as my stock of 2005 along with FDI,,,JKX was my tip of 2004,, and i still hold a tad shy of 200,000 despite temporary stalling at the 150 mark. What with the BP/Turkish Oil farm in on the JKX Georgia black sea license ( 4% could yield up to 130 mmbo) and planned tappings into the incredibly oil rich azeri/russian markets i see another year of success for them also And coupled with this the highest oil futures price ever !! Aprils @ almost $58 p/b; and the POTENTIAL is massive ,When u consider Glencarrys overseas persuaded both Swiss oil Traders and Naftogaz to sell them via the market a relatively small percentage of thier respective holdings in JKX ( but still in excess of 30m shares ) at au undisclosed price but believed to be in excess of 185p and you will see that much is expected of JKX in 2005. l have endeavoured to find out the precise figure but as yet am told only in excess of 175p !! ln JKX they have all the prerequisite imgredients to success Their management is errudite , knowledgeable and progressive yet robust and patient without vacillitating. They have extensive knowledge of the area in which they operate, have close connections to the appropriate ministries , a loyal and local workforce. And considering the geo-political working environment of JKX in what posterity will label the "Orange Revolution"; an environment that could have led to civil war as often accompanies such a power vacuem in the meltdown of a virtual police state and in which two distict but fundementally different factions vie for power,the company suffered no disruption due to the due dilligence and common sense of the peoples and workers ; and even overcame a problem with one of thier mines during this period and negotiated new licenses .And now with an enviable balance sheet in which profits doubled and subsequent leverage more than quadrupled JKX are thus enabled to embark on much larger programmes as SOLE operator. What more could you ask ? Also news recently illustrated that directional drilling of an older well increased its rate of production quite dramatically, News is due shortly on a mine spudded in late Jan .,Speculative, l agree , but worth noting -HUNT oil of Texas have been awarded a contract on the very productive Black Sea sea area belonging to The Ukraine .An area which probably had most of the Hunt execs reaching for thier atlasses ; and i find it difficult to believe JKX who themselves are well known as an entity with a portfolio of almost exclusive interest in the Ukraine and the Russias BUT who also happen to mine in East Texas at Shelby county are unknown to one another and furtermore will not play some part in all this ..... ,And so be the same at FDI whose managements absolute conviction that diamoniferous sources lay in abundance within the confines of their Orapa license was so deeply held that they spent literally years searching without reward, and even suffered, the dissappointment and despondency of watching others such as De Beers and AFD reaping success in the same area; YET they laboured on and ON -using the model of using the sale of industrial alluvial diamonds to finance the high cost/risk work at Orapa and other sites ,The years rolled on; and interest in FDI started to fade....,,,,,and then came the very break they had been waiting for; and one which led to De Beers interest and subsequent j/v ,,and like your London busses ,,furthur discoveries came.....virtually one after the other.......,,,We have barely finished the first chapter in the story of FDI; and if not unfortunately swallowed up by De Beers ( AAL ) or even Rio or one of the big boys at a nice premium its story will only get better. .Finally; i make NO secret that i have what some may consider a big interest; and therefore be slightly bias. SO i STRONGLY ADVISE anyone to do as much INDEPENDANT reasearch as they can before taking a position .Everyone knows thier trading position best ! bonne chnce ...@+ J.

Amities / Sorry everyone ! lol l got rather carried away there. But JKX and FDI constitute over 18% of my portfolio and are companies i have tracked for years Therefore it is inevitable l would prattle on so much ,,,,,,esp sorry to the FDI thread being subjected to JKX prognastications ,,,,@+ J

Phew.....! The FrenchConnection, welcome to the FDI BB. How long did it take you to write that last post? It took me long enough to read it!! As a holder in both FDI and JKX (although it would appear a far smaller holder than yourself) I was certainly interested in what you have to say. It is interesting to draw parallels between the two companies and I for one am convinced that both are excellent companies (even if I have been a little troubled by the FDI sp volatility of late :-) ) Still, as you say, the RNS is good news so roll-on the results and the imminent breaking of the 2 barrier!

FC, queen1,

Yes that was quite a post!

I too hold FDI and JKX, FDI for years, and JKX since around 37p, so CGT rules on AIM stocks held for more than two years will be taken advantage of in both cases, and I will be holding both these stocks for the foreseeable future, they both look like winners to me.

Reading again the FDI RNS today, I particularly like the additional licence in Groen River, and the fact that it's a BEE JV.

hopefully, now this has been granted, FDI will be able to release some initial grades from the Groen River HL deposit in the near future, as I imagine they may have been holding these back until they were awarded the additional licences in the same area, for obvious reasons!

Yet another decent day, currently up 11.5p @ 182.5p, an increase of 6.73%, yet not a post on the thread!

A little more news was released today, Gartmore now hold over 12% of FDI.

==========================================================================

21 March 2005

21st March 2005

Firestone Diamonds plc



Firestone Diamonds plc ('the Company') announces that it has received
notification today from Gartmore Investment Management plc, that Gartmore
Investment Limited, Gartmore Fund Managers Limited and Gartmore Global Partners
have an aggregate revised notifiable interest in 5,333,116 Ordinary Shares of
20p each representing approximately 12.359% of the current issued ordinary share
capital of the Company. These shares are held as follows:


Fund Managing Number of Ordinary Percentage of UK Registered Owner Beneficial Owner
Co Shares held Issued Capital
Gartmore Fund 2,492,085 5.775% HSBC Global Custody Gartmore Fund Managers
Managers Nominee UK Ltd Ltd A/C Gartmore UK &
Limited Irish Smaller Companies
Strategy Fund


Gartmore 407,151 0.944% BNY GIL CLT A/C NOMS Gartmore Growth
Investment LTD A/C NWSC Opportunities plc
Limited

Gartmore 544,589 1.262% BNY GIL CLT A/C NOMS Gartmore Smaller
Investment LTD A/C LST Companies Trust plc
Limited

Gartmore 282,800 0.655% BNY GIL CLT A/C NOMS Gartmore Absolute Growth
Investment LTD A/C GAGIG and Income Trust (Growth)
Limited

Gartmore 974,483 2.258% Nortrust Nominees Strathclyde Pension Fund
Investment Limited
Limited

Gartmore 463,038 1.073% Vidacos Nominees Ltd A The Alphagen Volantis
Investment /C 1945 Fund Limited
Limited

Gartmore 168,970 0.392% Goldman Sachs Nominees The Gartmore Limited
Investment Ltd Issue UK Small Cap Fund
Limited Ltd





The Company has been advised that the above shares are held for investment
purposes only for the clients and client funds concerned.



For further information:


Philip Kenny, Firestone Diamonds +44 20 7370 6452 / +44 7831 324 645

Leesa Peters, Conduit PR +44 20 7618 8707/ +44 7812 159 885

Jamie Cumming, Bell Lawrie +44 141 314 8103






This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

Yes, a good day although the sp fell away a little in the afternoon. Andy, pardon the potential ignorance but does the above notice mean that Gartmore's holding has been increased to 12.359% or decreased? If the former it's obviously good news, not so good if it's the latter.

queen1,

ok I didn't see the run up to 188p, went out shopping!

I believe Gartmore have increased their holding, but I will check and confirm when I know for sure.

queen1,

It looks like Gartmore have roughly the same as their holding a few months ago.

Thanks Andy. So all in all, still a good day to be a Firestone holder. My target of 2 by Easter is back within touching distance again which I didn't think would be the case this time last week.

Amities / An increased holding by Gartmore would indeed have gone a long way to explaining the buyer in Fridays market.(buying out of hours and in batches of 10,000.But that RNS shows a DISPOSAL by Gartmore of 85,000 shares . .Considering Gartmore hold a tad in excess of 5.3 million this is barely neglible.( Probably an oil trader who went short on sweet crude & settling his position lol But l tested the resilience of the FDI s/p and sold 10,000 at 188 amd mms marked the "bid" price 3p down within seconds. That is somewhat fagile and ephereal for my liking .Strong resistance is to be found at 185+ which has the mms running for cover.With an institional placing at 150p we have strong support and surely this is time for this share to consolidate and settle and await news , ,,,,But be under illusion any positive news , and i happen to believe there will be much for this old chestnut,and it will fly ., mais qui sait ? .Bonne chance ,,a'bientot ...@+ J.

TFC,

A couple of interesting recent posts from you, the sentiments of which I totally concur. You are well informed about FDI.

Are you a long term FDI holder?
Did you attend the recent AGM?

I have held FDI from some years ago, after hearing a presentation by P.Kenny in London. I have adjusted my position over the years in reaction to news from FDI, but as you rightly say, they stuck to their guns and kept faith in their ability to deliver, and they now appear ready to do that in abundance!

I believe, like you, that FDI are about to announce a series of discoveries, a whole chain of news items that will enhance shareholder value, and I will continue to hold for the longer term.

Now that FDI have secured the additional land they sought in the Groen River area, I hope they will begin to update us on the grades from the HL deposit in the near future. I have a feeling these have been retained until the additional land was under licence personally!

Interesting to note you also hold JKX, as I am also a long term holder, and another one I am holding onto as I beleive they will be a solid growth story.(SEY too, IMHO).

Sadly, I am NOT the Andy that recommended GFM at 2p!

Andy & TFC - What a merry trio we make, as all invested in FDI & JKX. I'm also in SEY with Andy, how about you TFC?

queen1,

And if not, why not?

I guess we are seeking the same kind of companies, and having done our research, ended up with the same ones!

Interesting......

Andy, absolutely. Probably find that we support the same football team, enjoy the same food are pinning our hopes on "the big one" to keep us off the streets!

queen1,

We may well vary on football team! - I am a season ticket holder at AFC Bournemouth.

Favourite food = Thai, and am hoping a combination of those three holdings will grow into "the big one" to keep me off the street without a mortgage!

FDI took another thumping today, but one or two largeish buys there, someone buying on the quiet maybe?

As the price has risen several times during the last tax year, some selling ahead of 5th April is inevitable I suppose, so we may well see further retracement, unless some good news is released with the results next week of course!

Andy - Your boys had their most famous FA Cup win ever against my lot.....

Thai's good. As is Indian, Chinese, Italian....I don't think we should talk waistlines!

Having endured the last couple of weeks' volatility where I have to confess to being a little jumpy, I'm not too concerned at present. To be fair virtually every holding in my portfolio was in the red today so FDI was not alone in causing me grief!

Amities / ,,,,,Rires !! LOL l'ironie de la chose hehe ..Je crois que oui ...lndeed i do hold a small position reg. SEY but discovered a discounted way into SEY via WTE {who sold many of thier gulf assets in Fusion ) to SEY for a considerstion of a wapping 77.5 million shares; but WTE also give you exposure to DES involved in North Falkland, and more interestingly a 15% interest in an unquoted company called "Eclipse" who have been given permission by the British DTI to set up a series of wind turbines,powered by small gas fields which while not fallow, and as such, not economical to be mined alone have proven more than an adequate source of power to drive these massive "windmill" type affairs.All power derived from the turbines has been intrinsically linked to the National grid in what is called the "Ormonde Project" and which is expected to light and heat every home in the counties of Lancs and Cumbria by 2010.Quite interestingly this entire project is financed by the mighty General Electric of the USA. Although i swapped 80% of my SEY holding into WTE i hold a small residual postion in SEY of about 50,000.i fully anticipate SEY to be a shining star of 2006 The good thing about WTE is that with barely a total of 13 million shares in issue it tends to massively exxerate movements of both SEY and DES <> As for what football team i support ? Well i am originally from Brive-La-Guillarde and hence i strictly support Olympic Boredeaux.But considering i was educated and furthermore have worked in the UK for juste over 15 years; and having been domiciled in SW3 for most of that time and happen to love footie i go to the "Bridge" for my saturday afternoons entertainment .A ma place .que feriez-vous ? ( Despite having a most strange individual as manager with some quite perculiar idiosyncrasies-like his antics on the touchline - and an extensive knowledge of ONLY the MOST expensive footballers with brains of collective rocking horses with equally expensive tastes ( of Lager . od course ! ) But seriously Mr M's antics are on occassion more entertaining than the actual teams performance yet we seem to be doing remarably well this season.lm saying that if Bourmouth had the monies as does Chelsea they likewise would be in Europe. Would i be correct in assuming thats where Harry Rednapp and Frank Lampard Snr started their management careers. ?,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,. As for Food - French . End of subject..Well thats not quite true.Recently while in a over priced in vogue eatary popular among the bourgoise in Paris i encountered a menu with over 6 dishes of friggin Spiders-very quicly cooked in wafer thin pastry and in a bed of light vingrette salad and finished off soaking in a delicate nettle and fennel pouring source. Cuisine nouv. ahhha you can give it the Parisians . They deserve it. But is not my forte. Chinese fare - unless i eat ten courses i am ravernous within am hour. l like French Lebanonese food. lt is like a thousand tastes exploding in your mouth at once . lndian can be similar as can most ex French lndo chinese countries . ..That much was inevitable wasnt it ? Come on gimme abreak . We French know our food. Even in Senegal and Cameroon you see the influence of French cuisine lronicallythere are quite a few good restuarants in London itself. . -Back to da markets ....COP looking quite interesting after that license win in the Oman right in the shadow of a field which produces in excess of 500,000 bpdoe. Admittedly like all middle east crude it is sour and quite high in Sulphur but the Chinese are building refineries to cope with crap from The latin Americas like friffin bitumin ...Anything around 35p and it goes on my serious watchlist .Currently 40p . As does Faroe islands oil. But what with Woods Mckenzie { who know thier marbles } and even my buddy Lord Brown ( Brownie , to his friends ) stating that the North sea was an utter waste of time and now coupled with all this talk of a high rotary rig count and hence an extreme dearth of rigs available, i think many of the smaller players in the North sea are going to expierience trouble or start amlgamating in attempts to sort out the plethora of problems they face. ,,,,mais qui sait huh? ,,...bonne chance/ faires attention ......a'bientot ..@+ J

queen1,

If you are referring to a little FA Cup defeat by the seaside in 1984, I was there!

What a day that was!

Good to see FDI hold up today, have a good Easter!

TFC,

Your memory is excellent, Harry Redknapp (but not BB) did indeed start his management career down here in Bournemouth!

In fact he was manager in 1984 when we knocked a certain northern big city team out of the FA Cup!

WTE is a good play on SEY, and my shareclub are in for that reason alone.

FDI interims are due next week, perm any day from Tuesday to Thursday!

Have a good Easter!

Andy, you got me! I do support a northern big city team and I remember listening to that particular game on the radio and not being able to believe what I was hearing! Still, it's what keeps football so magical...

Re the FDI interims, are you expecting much sp reaction or do you feel that any good news is already priced into the rises seen in 2005?