This is from a Presentation AFA did on Friday in Montreal, from another board:
Good morning everybody!
Before we get to the presentaion, I would like to take a moment to thank our research team who attended The Dick Foster presentation, and especially our research Professor, who contributed to most of what you are about to read!
Here we go!
Did you know that Nambia is the largest diamond producers (by value- average carat value of US $276)? And in 2001, over 60% of Nambia's 1.6 million plus carats per year diamond production actually came from the sea (95% of the diamonds are of gem quality)?
These are just some of the interesting points welearned at the presentation of the Afri-can Marine Minerals held in Montreal on Friday morning.
The man at the helm of the discovery, Chief geologist for Afri-can Marine Minerals, Dick Foster ( formerly of De Beers) is your salt-of-the earth geologist with a catchy South African accent. He holds a BSc in geology (graduated with honors) from Imperial College of the University of London: he has far-reaching experience in the marine diamond industry, what with 32 years working for De Beers before retiring in 1996. With De Beers he was Geological Manager for 11 years, where he was extensively involved in the management of exploration and mining programs.
What particularly caught our attention is the fact that Dick led the team that discovered major diamond deposits on the mid-continental shelves (in the ocean)off South Africa and Nambia during his tenure with De Beers.
The presentation, through projected maps and photos, clearly showed where Afri-can Marine Minerals are exploring their property. Representing near-term production potential (and that is really significant) the northern concession, the Woduna (Block J) concession area, is adjacent to a region where Marine and Coastal has estimated inferred diamond resources exceeding 4.25 million carats.
Due to tidal currents, many of the rivers flow eastward, landing in a rather narrow shelf off the east coast. However, due to certain geographical sloping, the westward flow that spills onto a much wider shelf, has shown very extensive rich deposits. And here is where Block J is located.
Diamonds in a nutshell: (website info)
Diamonds are found in volcanic pipes known as kimberlites. These kimberlites are areas of thick continental crust that are more than 2.5 billion years old. Most of the mineralized kimberlite pipes were embedded in the (present day) Orange and Vaal River drainage systems during the Early Cretaceous Period, dating back 90 to 120 million years. Erosion plays a role in this process, and it is estimated that the uppermost 1,400 meters of the pipes int he Orange/Vaal catchment area were removed and transported in the sea westward drainage systems. An estimated 3 billion carats of diamonds have been delivered to the sea, with the majority of which lies north of the present day Orange river mouth off the shores of Nambia.
Diamonds in marine areas are typically trapped in bedrock depressions eorded from various structures such as bedding planes, faults of joints in hard bedrock. These form gullies, potholes, basinal depressions, channels and other trapsites for diamondiferous deposits.
Mining diamonds: (website info)
Since the early 1990's, mining technology has become availalbe for the commercial exploration of marine diamond deposits. De Beers were the frist to devleop the mining technologies known as the vertical and horizontal systems. The vertical system uses a 6-7 meter diameter drill head to cut into the seabed and suck up the diamond-bearing material. The horizontal system uses remote-controlled vehicles, known as seabed crawlers, which move across the sea floor pumping up gravel to the mothership to be processed. In both cases, the diamond-bearing gravel is screened or sized and a diamond concentrate is recovered and sent to an X-ray recovery plant. Both NAMCO and Diamond Fields use variations of these two technologies that take into account the sea floor conditions of their mining concessions. With the commercial application of new mining technologies at increasing water depths, marine diamond production is expected to continue to grow in the future.
AFA relies on specifically outfitted boating vessels provided by IMB. One of the unique aspects of these drilling boats is a massive drill driving throgh the center of the boat, allowing for the boat to act as weight behind the drill. It is clear: it is safe: it is extremely cost and time efficient.
Unlike metals, diamonds rely on inferred and ???? estimates for resource counts in establishing the company's value.
Another point of interest that Dick mentioned, and something that indicated to us that AFA has some of the best minds in the diamond business, is that Afr-can Marine Minerals is going to the identical depths that De Beers has gone, which is precisely where De Beers discovered their bounty; one hundred and twenty meters in the seabed.
No other diamond mining company in the region has drilled to these depths except for Afri-can Marine Minerals and of course, De Beers.
Because of the marine location of these diamonds, you will find a smoother surface on these gems. Just as wind and water affect stones on mountains and rivers, so does the lapping tide affect diamonds. Dick spoke with such enthusiasm about his work with Ari-can Marine Minerals that you could not help but leave at the end of the presentation with that contagious feeling that you caught the bug. The diamond bug, that is.
On a brief political note, the Republic of Nambia obtained its independence from South Africa in 1990. They have established a constitution, recognized as one of most democratic in the world. The government is a multi-party unitary republic, boasting one fothe most politically stable, well-developed countries in Africa.
LETS DISCUSS MONEY AND VALUES
In order to understand what AFA shares are worth, we addressed this question to the president and CEO Pierre Leveille!
He told us the simplest way of calculation as far as determining an idea price per share all one has to do is calculate one million carats equals $0.50 to $0.60 cents a share!
you also have to keep in mind that diamonds are different then gold in calculations as diamond are as you find them , its like a squarrels gathering food to fill their nest!
as for gold they drill to prove up a resource!
After hearing all the information about this amazing country, we as a team believe that AFA is walking the same foot-print as De Beers, and for them to gather 4 to 5 million carats will be a reality in the future!
as far as the share price $2.50 to $ 3.00 on their first endevers, for us is a given!
They also have much more blue sky after that!
I hope that you all learned something from our work, as we truly enjoyed telling it to you all.
I suggest that you all do your own due diligence
Herb
and Team
