Ann: NINETY TWO DIAMONDS (15.79 CARATS) FROM MON, page-27

re: Ann: NINETY TWO DIAMONDS (15.79 CARATS) ... this is the latest article i can find.

Story courtesy of The Australian Financial Review

Prorata Resources has purchased an exploration licence to search for hard rock diamonds in an area near Walcha.

Prorata acquired the licence from self-taught prospector, Ray Andrews, whose grandfather knew a French prospector who discovered diamonds in the region in the 1880s.

Geologists consider the area significant because the type of diamonds found there suggests there may be a source of hard rock diamonds nearby - a first for the State, which could spawn a multimillion-dollar dollar industry.

Self-taught prospector Ray Andrews secured the exploration licence for the 42 square kilometre site three weeks ago after a 14-year search to find a tunnel dug and then concealed by the original prospector, who died in 1919.

It was transferred immediately to Prorata Resources, a company part-owned owned by former NSW premier, Neville Wran. Mr Andrews owns shares in the company and retains a royalty interest.

Mr Andrewss grandfather, a grazier who knew the French prospector, told him about the mine.

We started to search for the lost diamond mine, which took nearly 14 years to find because he had covered it up so well, Mr Andrews said. When we got into it, it was quite magnificent.

Mr Wran - premier from 1976 to 1986 - has a share in Prorata Resources through two other companies, but he declined to comment on his involvement.

Im just a humble citizen of NSW, he said.

Mr Andrews said Mr Wran had been involved in the venture for about 12 months.

Mr Wran and his partner [Albert Wong] are very adventurous people, he said. Theyre explorers in the financial world.

Larry Barron, a former Department of Mineral Resources research geologist, said the land was considered too young in geological terms to yield hard rock diamonds but the number of unique gems found in the area suggested a local high-grade source.

If they are talking about a hard rock source, they are talking about something quite significant, Dr Barron said. It would be a geological first.

NSW has only ever yielded alluvial diamonds (which are eroded at a hard rock source and carried many hundreds of kilometres away).

But Mr Andrews said he was confident a bulk sample of a diamond formation inside the working would confirm he had found a hard rock source.

Ive done my homework very well, he said. The geology will tell us straight away.

The venture could also yield sapphires. Everywhere theyve found diamonds in NSW, they have always been found with sapphires, Mr Andrews said.

The find could spawn a new industry for the State and include diamond cutting, most of which is done offshore. It would also reduce imports of industrial diamonds.

Alluvial diamonds from NSW typically fetch between $US85 ($110) and $US200 $US200 a carat, compared with $US7 for Argyle run-of-mine diamonds from Western Australia.

Dr Barron said: If they find something, youre talking about a major increase in employment 10 to 15 years down the track.

NSW already produces small amounts of diamonds at Bingara and Copeton and sapphires and rubies at Barrington and Inverell.

The Walcha development would not be NSWs first major gemstone find - the late Kerry Packer linked with Cluff Resources in 2004 to mine rubies on one of his properties.