Stellar Provides Update on Trial Mining at Baoulé Kimberlite

Stellar Diamonds plc (LSE:STEL) announced an update from trial mining at its Baoulé kimberlite pipe in Guinea.

As quoted in the press release,

• Trial mining has yielded a total of 2,145 carats to date at an average grade of 15cpht
• High quality gems continue to be recovered including stones of 8.5ct and 6.6ct
• Processing plant running at target rate of 50 tonnes per hour
• Monthly production of 2,000 carats expected, assuming average grade of 15cpht
• Larger c. 5,900 carat parcel being prepared for first sale, which has been deferred to January 2015 to maximise first revenues, consisting of:
  • First exported Baoulé parcel of 941 carats
  • Second Baoulé parcel to be exported to Antwerp, increasing Baoulé parcel for sale to c. 2,200 carats
  • Inventory of 3,700 carats currently stored in Antwerp from other projects
• Regular exports expected from Baoulé in 2015

Stellar Diamonds Chief Executive Karl Smithson stated:

We are pleased with the on-going progress of the trial mining at Baoulé. The regular occurrence of larger gem quality stones is highly encouraging, as is maintaining our target plant processing capacity and run of mine grade, in order to achieve our objective of processing 2,000 carats per month during 2015.

Click here for the full Stellar Diamonds plc (LSE:STEL) press release