Mwana Sees 46% Rise in Klipspringer Production Sale Value
April 02, 08
African-owned and operated resource company Mwana Africa realized an average value of $121 per carat (p/c) on the sale of its February production from the South African Klipspringer mine. This represents a 46 percent increase over the average price per carat in 2003, when the mine was last in production.
A total of 6,057 carats have been sold from the mine so far in 2008, including an 8 carat stone, valued at $4,000 p/c.
In addition to the increase in diamond value, since the mine was brought back into production in early 2008, there has been a significant improvement in the recovered grade, a direct result of the re-engineering that has taken place at the operation, the firm said.
The company noted that the mine is expected to produce 90,000 carats per annum at full production, which Mwana believes can be reached by the end of the first quarter of 2009.
Mwana Africa also announced the settlement of the outstanding tax liability arising from the South African diamond operations of SouthernEra.
Early last year, it was reported that Mwana intended to make a share exchange takeover bid of SouthernEra, a Canadian diamond firm holding alluvial and kimberlite diamond exploration projects in the
In August 2007, SouthernEra’s board of directors recommended to its shareholders to accept the amended offer, which valued the company at C$0.67 (US$0.63, at the time of the offer) per share, an aggregate value of C$205.3 million ($195.08 million).
The Klipspringer mine is a joint venture between operator and manager Mwana (61 percent) and Naka Diamond Mining (39 percent), a Black Economic Empowerment company.
Kalaa Mpinga, CEO of Mwana Africa, commented, “This is a small but important step in the strategy of Mwana to add diamond production to our multi commodity portfolio. Rough diamond prices are currently very strong and this augurs well for Klipspringer and our potential alluvial diamond operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”