Paragon Diamonds Limited, the African-focused diamond development company says it has exported a parcel of diamonds (211.22 carats) from its on-going evaluation programme on the Lemphane Kimberlite, with the appropriate Kimberley Protocol certificate and governmental approval, to the company’s consignee in Antwerp.
The company is awaiting a valuation of the parcel of 211.22 carats, together with a valuation on the previous parcel of 90.22 carats exported in September 2012. The total number of carats produced and exported from the Lemphane Kimberlite to date, is 301.44 carats (the “301 Carat Parcel”). The most recent parcel includes the 8.86 carat stone recovered in May, 2013.
Paragon has also completed the processing of all the major pit samples taken across the Lemphane Kimberlite. These samples comprised six 25x25m pits of between two and three thousand tonnes each (P1,2,3,3A,4,5), as well as two 25x10m pits in the wall-rock contact zone (P6,7) and a 15x15m pit in the satellite pipe (Sat-P). All samples were excavated from sub-surface kimberlite to a depth of approximately 2.5m. In total, 18,387.70 tonnes (16,116.90 dry tonnes) were processed, producing the aforementioned parcels of 301.44 carats for an average grade of 1.87 cpht (the 301 Carat Parcel includes approximately 11 carats of diamonds produced from clean-up and plant sterilization which will be allocated to samples pro-rata).
The company’s geological consultants, The MSA Group, have undertaken a site visit and audit of the processing, recording and, Quality Assurance / Quality Control processes in place for the bulk sampling. An independent report is in preparation, a further announcement on the findings of the report will be made in due course.
Paragon added that it has completed the planned stage one drilling (deep delineation) on the Lemphane Kimberlite, with four holes to an average depth of 343m (total 1,373.16m) having been drilled. The first three holes drilled through kimberlite and intersected the kimberlite/wall rock contact at between 2,355m and 2,270m above sea level (mean surface is 2,615m above sea level) i.e. between 260m and 345m below surface.
The final hole approached, but did not intersect, the contact, bottoming out at 372.5m whilst still in kimberlite. Preliminary in-house calculations indicate that the kimberlite/wall rock contact angle varies between 85° and 87° and thus at 350m below mean surface the pipe still maintains a planar area greater than 3 Ha. These results exceed the provisional estimates made for the scoping study in February, 2013. All core samples have been logged by our consultants AMEC and are being integrated into the geological model. An independent report and a volumetric and tonnage estimate is expected from AMEC in due course.
In June 2013, the Lesotho Minister of Mines, requested additional information on the submitted environmental base line audit. This audit has recently been completed by the Company’s environmental consultants, LOCI Environmental, and on submission to the Ministry of Mines the approval process for the mining lease application is expected to be concluded without further delay.
In accordance with the AIM Rules for Companies, the information in this announcement has been reviewed by Stephen Grimmer PhD., MSc., a qualified geologist with over 25 years diamond exploration experience.
Martin Doyle, Chairman of Paragon, said the company was happy with the steady progress being made on the ground at its flagship project, Lemphane. “There is currently strong demand for the type of stones that are being produced from Lemphane and with current global market supply constraints this positions the company well to continue to the evaluation programme. I look forward to updating the market with the revised tonnage and volumetric report, in addition to progress on the mining licence application, which should be awarded shortly”. Paragon Diamonds Limited owns 85% of Lemphane Kimberlite project in Lesotho.
