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

Found this audio interview when I was doing some research on Firestone Diamonds.

Wanted to share it with you, its well worth a click:

http://www.brrmedia.co.uk/event/99903/tim-wilkes-chief-executive-officer

Talks the talk I intended to hold mine for a few years so it should be interesting times ahead.

From the III

Four small-cap miners tipped for stardom
By Lee Wild | Fri, 4th September 2015 - 13:44

mining truck Mining stocks have been in sharp decline since 2010, tracking the slump in global commodity prices. Mining companies have been slow to cut both capital programmes and unprofitable operations, resulting in significant oversupply of raw materials such as coal and iron ore. The heavyweights - among them Rio Tinto (RIO), BHP Billiton (BLT) and Anglo American (AAL) - have seen share prices plunge by 60%, and the small and mid-cap plays are down 80% over the past five years.
"We contend that it will take at least a year for current surplus stockpiles of raw materials, intermediate products and finished goods to be absorbed by the market," warns Martin Potts, an analyst at broker finnCap. "However, in our view, prices of most mined commodities will have to start rising within the next two to three years."

"[We expect] most mined commodities to trade around their current levels for the rest of 2015 and 2016 before rising to at least the levels that justify further capital investment in the sector from 2017 onwards."

And Potts believes there are now bargains to be had for brave investors. Several mining stocks "offer good value with low inherent risks at current commodity prices," he says, all of which are either profitable and paying dividends, are just entering production or are fully funded to positive cashflow "and can confidently be bought today".

The four companies on Potts' buy list - covered in order of risk, from lowest to highest - all offer considerable upside to finnCap's target prices and retain "unusually low risk profiles relative to other small to mid-cap mining stocks".



Gem Diamonds (GEMD) already makes lots of money selling unusually large and high-quality diamonds. Its Letšeng mine in Lesotho produces the most valuable diamonds of any diamond mine in the world, and demand from super-rich buyers has held up better than for mass market diamonds. Cash generated from Gem's mining portfolio is expected to be returned to shareholders by means of a dividend. The first was paid in June and Potts reckons this will grow from the present 4.1% yield as it is currently more than three times covered by earnings.

Central Asia Metals (CAML) also makes big profits. It recovers copper from old waste dumps at the Kounrad copper mine in Kazakhstan, explains Potts, and even at present copper prices, the business has an operating margin of 65%. Highly experienced management have a track record of creating and returning value to shareholders, and the shares currently yield 8.6%.

Having now finished building its New Liberty gold mine in Liberia, Aureus Mining (AUE) is ramping up to full production. It's a high-grade resource for an open-pit mine, so margins will be high. "The market does not appear to recognise that first cashflow is imminent, as the stock is trading at just 4.2x 2016 earnings," says Potts. "We expect that the stock will re-rate once it declares commercial production in Q4 2015."

Lastly, and the higher-risk prospect, is Firestone Diamonds (FDI). It's still more than a year from first production at the Liqhobong diamond mine in Lesotho - Q4 2016 is the current best guess - but Firestone is at least fully-funded through to positive cashflow. "This is one of the last really cheap entries into the diamond space apart from pure explorers," Potts says. "The Liqhobong project is also known to contain very large diamonds; these give the project considerable additional upside potential.

"Firestone is currently trading at less than 30% of our risked valuation, and consequently offers an exceptional investment opportunity on a two-year basis."