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We've been extremely fortunate. It's a fantastic jewel - Clifford Elphick, GEM
In an interview on 702 @ 18:40 on Wednesday, 4 October 2006
[miningmx.com] -- GEM Diamond Mining Company CEO, Clifford Elphick, described the discovery of a 603 carat diamond at the firm's Letseng mine in Lesotho as "a fantastic jewell".
"Letseng is well known as a mine that produces big stones. We're very fortunate. It's a fantastic jewell," he said. Elphick, formerly advisor to E. Oppenheimer & Son, was speaking on 702's The World at Six.
The 'Lesotho Promise' as the diamond has been called, is being put up for sale on October 4 through a private tender in Antwerp, Belgium. The tender process is expected to be completed by October 9, said GEM Diamond Mining Company.
Elphick said the Lesotho Promise was the largest diamond discovered at Letseng, slightly larger than the 601 carat 'Lesotho Brown' which was recovered in 1967. Letseng was closed by De Beers in 1982.
Speaking on Classic Business, another radio programme aired in
South Africa, Elphick said GEM hoped to list on the London Stock Exchange before the end of the year.
Capital raised to finance the company, including its R900m to R1bn acquisition of Letseng in July, was raised in London and shareholders preferred the company to be listed there, Elphick said.
There were no plans to list in Johannesburg, partly because the company's operations were (currently) restricted to Lesotho.
Greg Potter, of Nedcor Securities, said it would be good news for some of South Africa's other diamond firms to discover such diamonds.
"DiamondCore is in start up phase. It's not producing unlike Letseng. But it would be great if it discovered a diamond like this," he said.
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