Tongo, a resource of 4.5 million carat diamonds

Tongo in Sierra Leone exports

Rough samples of 1626 carats!

According to the Stellar Diamonds has previously reported that the Diamond Project in Sierra Leone contains a JORC-compliant inferred historical resource of 4.5 million carats.  This resource is based on over 65,000m of drilling, which has delineated the kimberlite dykes to approximately 200m below surface. 

Newfield Executive Director, Karl Smithson, commented: “We are rapidly nearing the conclusion of the Tongo Front-End Engineering Design programme with our technical partners PPM, SRK Consulting and Datamine. Final mine optimisation is ongoing and will be completed shortly. We have also commenced the excavations and shaping of the box cut for the single access portal in order to maximise efficiency in the planned mine development schedule.

The receipt of the 25 year, renewable, large-scale mining licence for Sierra Diamonds is another key step forward as we move towards the proposed commercial development of the Tongo Mining project. We also recently exported parcels of Tongo diamonds for valuation and are very encouraged to see the high proportion of gem quality stones in the parcels and, in particular, the very high percentage of what the industry terms “collection goods”, which are diamonds with top colours in the D to G range.”

Some 2,000 carats have been yielded from processing of stockpiled bulk samples of the Kundu, Lando and Pandebu kimberlites. In 4Q 2018, two diamond parcels totalling approximately 1,626 carats (post acid cleaning) were exported to Antwerp for assortment and valuation, comprising 958.33carats of Lando, from Kundu 300.19 carats) and of Pandebu 367.33 carats of stones.

These parcels contain an unusually high proportion of “collection goods” (D to G colours), including 48% in the case of Lando, which is particularly encouraging. All diamonds exported are fully Kimberley Process Compliant and all required taxes and royalties were paid to the Government of Sierra Leone upon export.