Canon, can I suggest that your response was once again quite defensive, go back to my original comments to YD and discuss my points.
1. Diamond exploration is fraught with difficulties - Just go ask any diamond Geo or look at RioTinto's and BHP lack of success in exploration.
“BHP has been singularly unsuccessful [in diamond exploration], and they’ve thrown a lot of money and resources at it in Canada and elsewhere,” said Patrick Evans, chief executive of Mountain Province Diamonds Inc. “But it’s no particular judgment on BHP’s skills. Everyone has been unsuccessful.”
2. Diamond grade v valuation, try looking at Lucapa's Brooking Dam results to see a high initial micro diamond grade proved fruitless.
3. Ellendale Alluvials - Blina was mined for a short period around 2007-8 before being put into care. Though I would suggest reading some of Gibb Rivers technical evaluation using modern GPR technology, there is a lot of good data!
4. Ellendale Aluvials E9 East and West have had some mining not fully developed further out from mine.
5. Ellendale E9 pipe, mining stopped around the early 2014? due to mine wall slippage, already extensively mined for around a decade. Contained the largest % of Fancy Yellow.
6. Ellendale E4 pipe, mined on and off depending on diamond market as considerably lower price per carat, has more capacity than E9
7. E4 Satellite unmined apart from a small bulk sample, pricing similar to E4 slightly less Fancy Yellow.
8. Naujaat Canada, think BHP were first to discover in the early 2000's (could be wrong) then Stornaway took over, then Northern Arrow and now in conjuction with Burgundy, several experienced companies have gone over this ground, hopefully the larger bulk sample shows the orange/yellow component is more significant than first thought. One concern I have is the orange/yellow goods appear to be cubic in formation rather than Octahedral/Dodecahedral in form, this could have a significant impact on polished yield.
9. Botswana - currently pure exploration though is the premier location to search for diamonds both Geographically and stability of government, Angola would be the next Geographically and now Rio and Debeers joining Alrosa in the search, will Burgundy follow?
Now I am sure Peter and his team would have discussed these points in detail and decided the opportunities outweighed the risk.
Overall diamond prices are looking strong going forward and at near decade peaks.
Demand finally looks to be outdoing supply, with few new mines in plan.
Fancy coloured diamonds in demand and volumes reduced with Ellendale (50% Fcy Yellow world production) and Argyle (90% of pinks)
Very few companies set up to take advantage of the above.
Now Canon feel free to discuss the points if you have anything to add!
Regards, your resident successful diamond expert!
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