Stellar Diamonds

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Stellar Diamonds plc is a London listed (AIM:STEL) diamond exploration and development company that is focused on the West African countries of Sierra Leone and Guinea.  Stellar has an advanced portfolio of high grade kimberlites that are currently subject to resource definition thorugh drilling, bulk sampling and trial mining.  Initial resource statements are expected in early 2011 from Tongo and Droujba.  In addition, Stellar has also mined and sold over 125,000 carats of diamonds from two alluvial operations in Guinea. 

Website:
http://www.stellar-diamonds.com/
Phone:
+44 (0)20 7257 2930
Address:
20 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7QH.
Super Sector:
General Mining - Diamonds & Gemstones
Sector:
Mining
Industry:
Diamonds & Gemstones
EPIC / Symbols:
LON:STEL

Sector: Mining

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Presentations & Company Media
Current Statement

Overview 

 

• A leading West African diamond exploration, development and production company 

• Ten year track record of exploration, development and mining in Sierra Leone and 

Guinea

• Focussed on value creation through the development of high grade kimberlite projects

• Raised £6.2 million (before expenses) in March 2011

• Fully funded to define initial resources at Droujba and Tong

 

Current Operations

Stellar Diamonds' Projects

 

 

Sierra Leone

 

Kono 

• US$17 million spent to date – project almost fully capitalised

• Focus on high value Pol-K and Bardu kimberlites

• Underground trial mining of Pol-K at 65m depth (Level 1)

• 4,200 carats produced to end Apr-09

• 11.96, 11.39 and 10.51 carat stones from Pol-K Shaft

• In-situ grades of 66cpht (Pol-K), 140cpht (Bardu)

• $152/ct for Pol-K “pre-crash”

• The project was temporarily put onto care and maintenance in May-09 to preserve cash.

 

Tongo

Key value driver for growth

• Tongo is a renowned diamond mining area of Sierra Leone

• Stellar commenced exploration in 2007

• Four kimberlites discovered and tested

• Dyke 1 strike length of 2.5km

• Significant tonnage potential to depth

• 2,000 tonne bulk sampling programme in progress

 

Dyke 1 Bulk Sampling in progress

 

Bulk Sampling Results

 

• 2,000 ton bulk sampling ongoing and yielding in-situ grades of 110cpht

• 500 carats produced, to be exported in June

• 90% diamonds classified as gem quality

• 2008 diamond parcel re-valued at $169/ct

• Calculated $186 per tonne in situ value kimberlite, some of the highest value rock in the world

Guinea

 

Droujba

• Russian sampling grades of up to 5.84ct/m(>200cpht)
• 270-ct stone discovered by local diggers in alluvials near to pipe
• Drilling programme commenced in November 2010
• 18 holes completed for 3,000m
• Pipe intersected at 222m, open at depth
• Surface area delineated at 3-hectares
• Initial microdiamond results significantly positive
• Phase-2 drilling to delineate resource to 250m

Aerial View of the Droujba Kimberlite Pipe


Mandala and Bomboko


• 128,000 carats produced to date
• $4m in sales completed
• Bomboko closed down due to uneconomic grades
• Mandala to continue in high grade areas (>30cpht) so long as it remains profitable

      
Mandala Gems                                                                   Bomboko run of mine diamonds

Bouro


• 5km long kimberlite
• 2km from Mandala plant
• De Beers work suggested grades ofover 400cpht
• First bulk sample gave grade of243cpht
• 550 carats to be exported in May forvaluation
• Additional bulk samples to be collectedbefore end July-11
• Decision on future work will depend ondiamond grade and value from thesebulk samples


For further information on the projects please click here and view the latest presentation here
  

Managment

The Lord Daresbury - Non-Executive Chairman (aged 57)

Peter Daresbury has held numerous executive positions, including CEO from 1997 to 2000 of the Greenalls Group, which had an annual turnover of £983 million and a FTSE market capitalisation of £1.7 billion. In 2000, the company was re-named The De Vere Group plc, and Peter Daresbury became Non-Executive Chairman until he stood down in 2006. Peter Daresbury has also served as Non-Executive Chairman of Kazakhgold Group Ltd from 2005 to 2007 and Executive Chairman of Highland Gold from 2002 to 2004. Peter is currently Chairman of AIM quoted Nasstar plc, Aintree Racecourse Company Ltd, Mallett plc and North West Business Finance Ltd, a new Private Venture Capital and Loan Fund (VCLF) for the Northwest. 

Current directorships include Sumatra Copper and Gold Ltd, and in addition, since 2005, Peter sits on the Fleming Family and Partners Private Equity Committee.

 
Karl Smithson - Chief Executive Officer (aged 44)

Karl Smithson (44) was appointed as Stellar's Chief Executive Officer with effect from 1 January 2007, having built the portfolio of Stellar's assets within Mano River Resources since 2000. He led the listing of Stellar on AIM through a reverse takeover of West African Diamonds and has over the years successfully raised over £12million in equity funding for Stellar.

Karl has 22 years of resource sector experience gained with a number of companies in senior management positions, including De Beers (10 years), SouthernEra Diamonds (two years) and African Aura/Stellar (10 years). Karl's working career has been focused on diamond exploration in Africa and he has been responsible for a number of new diamond discoveries in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and Liberia. 

Karl is a geology graduate of Kingston University in the UK. He completed his MBA in 2006 at the Graduate School of Business in Cape Town, South Africa and was awarded with the Old Mutual Gold Medal.

 
James Campbell - Non-Executive Director (aged 46)

James is the Managing Director of African Diamonds plc, and a Director of Bugeco sa, Swala Resources plc, Boteti Mining Pty Ltd as well as Stellar Diamonds plc. Previously, he worked for De Beers for over 20 years, culminating in being General Manager responsible for resource delivery in the Global Mining and Exploration group.

During his career with De Beers he also led small-scale mine development as well as being involved in corporate management and being Nicky Oppenheimer's Personal Assistant.

James holds a degree in Mining & Exploration Geology from the Royal School of Mines (Imperial College, London University) and an MBA with distinction from Durham University. James is a Fellow of the Institute of Mining, Metallurgy & Materials, Chartered Engineer (UK), Chartered Scientist (UK), a Professional Natural Scientist (RSA) and a member of the Institute of Directors of South Africa. 

As part of his social commitment to South Africa, he acts as vice chairman of the South African Ballet Theatre and acting chairman of Common Purpose SA. He is also a licensed Lay Minister in the Anglican Church of South Africa and an accomplished Ballroom and Latin American dancer. James lives in Irene with his wife and two university
going daughters.

 
Luis da Silva - Non-Executive Director (aged 40)

Luis is CEO of TSXV/AIM listed (symbol: AFF) Afferro Mining Inc. He gained his extensive international experience with multinationals Lafarge S.A. and Blue Circle Industries Plc. Luis is a graduate Mining Engineer from Camborne School of Mines and read for his MBA at the Cranfield School of Management. He is a Non-Executive Director of Aureus Mining Inc (TSX / AIM: AUE).

 
Steven Poulton - Non-Executive Director (aged 35)

Steven Poulton holds an Honours degree in Geology from the University of Southampton (1997) and a Masters degree in Mining Geology from the Camborne School of Mines (1998). He is the Chief Executive and co-founder (2007) of Altus Strategies Ltd, a private natural resource investment group and a director of its subsidiaries Altus Capital Ltd (the investment manager of Altus Resource Capital Ltd [LSE:ARCL]) and Asterion AV Ltd a special situation resource investor and new business incubator. Steven was a co-founder of African Aura Mining Inc, which in 2011 de-merged its assets to create Aureus Mining Inc [AIM / TSX: AUE] and Afferro Mining Inc [AIM / TSX-V: AFF]. Steven is a fellow of the Geological Society of London and a fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

Management

 

Rowan D. Carr - Chief Operating Officer

Rowan Carr has 21 years of diamond exploration with De Beers, managing projects in Botswana, South Africa, Angola, Guinea, CAR and the DRC. For 4 years he managed the world's largest prospecting sample treatment / indicator mineral examination facility in South Africa, which included the implementation of a global Laboratory Information Management System. He has a proven track record of initiating and managing exploration programmes in remote African settings and was responsible in 1997 for the discovery & drilling of Angola's first kimberlites found by De Beers since Independence. In a senior management position, prior to joining Stellar, Rowan managed De Beers' discovery and preliminary kimberlite evaluation drilling programme in the DRC.

Rowan joined Stellar as VP Exploration in May 2007, and is responsible for exploration & evaluation activities, adding value to projects in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and the DRC. He did his Masters at the Royal School of Mines, and is a Fellow of the Geological Society (London) and a Chartered Geologist.

 
A. Kassim Mansaray - Senior Geologist for Sierra Leone

Kassim completed an MSc. at the Moscow Geological Research Institute in 1980 and joined the Sierra Leone Geological Survey. In 1990, he completed a second MSc. in Mining Geo-statistics at the University of Leeds. In 1988, he was Project Geologist for an EEC funded project to investigate gold lode mineralisation in the Nimini hills. In 1995-96 he was responsible, on behalf of the Sierra Leone Government, for supervision of De Beer's offshore diamond exploration programme. Kassim has been with Mano and Stellar since 1996 and is currently responsible for both the Kono and Tongo projects in Sierra Leone.

 
Graham C. Radburnd - Project Manager, Tongo 

Graham, 56, brings over 32 years of bulk earthmoving, road construction, civil engineering, and diamond mining experience to Stellar. Graham spent from 1976 through to 1995 working on civils projects in South Africa, Botswana and Oman, specializing in bulk earthmoving and roads construction. From 1996 through to 2006, Graham covered all aspects of commissioning, operating and managing both alluvial and kimberlitic diamond Mines, having spent 6 years in Angola, and 4 years in the DR Congo with ITM Mining, SouthernEra Resources and Oryx Natural Resources. Graham joins Stellar from completing a 2 year contract, as the Operations Manager with the Tsar Emerald Corporation, refurbishing (US$45M) and bringing back into production, the Malysheva emerald deposit in Siberia, Russia.

Corporate Information

 

Company Secretary

Karl Smithson

Cell: +44 (0) 77 837 07971

karl.smithson@stellar-diamonds.com

 

Nominated Adviser and Broker

Northland Capital Partners Limited

60 Gresham Street

London

EC2V 7BB

T: +44 (0) 207 796 8800

F: +44 (0) 207 796 8803

E-mail: info@northlandcp.co.uk

 

Joint Broker

Daniel Stewart & Company Plc

Becket House, 

36 Old Jewry, 

London 

EC2R 8DD

T: +44 (0) 20 7776 6550

F: +44 (0) 20 7796 4648

E-mail: martin.lampshire@danielstewart.co.uk

 

Solicitors

Cobbetts LLP

One Colmore Square

Birmingham

B4 6AJ

T: 0845 404 2404

F: 0845 404 4144

E-mail: enquiries@cobbetts.com

 

Auditors 

Deloitte & Touche

Deloitte & Touche House

Earlsfort Terrace

Dublin 2

Ireland

T: 353 (1) 417 2200

F: 353 (1) 417 2300

 

Registrars

Computershare Services (Ireland) Limited

Heron House

Corrig Road

Sandyford Industrial Estate

Dublin 18

 

Contact Information

 

UK Representative Office: Stellar Diamonds Plc

 

20 Southampton Street 

London

WC2E 7QH

 

E-mail: info@stellar-diamonds.com

 

 

Karl Smithson, Chief Executive Officer

karl.smithson@stellar-diamonds.com

Cell: + 44 (0) 778 370 7971 

 

Philip Knowles, Financial Controller

philip.knowles@stellar-diamonds.com

0207 257 2930

Major Shareholders

Issued Capital Shares
Number of shares on issue: 216,766,659
Share options outstanding: 7,944,675
Share warrants outstanding at 12p to 11/4/12 23,064,383
 
Fully diluted share capital: 247,775,717
 
Shareholders who hold more than 3%
Mano Diamonds Ltd   14.2%
Richmond Partners Master Limited   8.1%
BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited   5.5%
BlackRock Smaller Companies Trust PLC   3.6%
BARCLAYSHARE NOMINEES LIMITED   3.4%
Percentage of shares not in public hands   17.7%

 

There are currently no restrictions on the transfer of securities and there are no shares held as treasury shares.

Stellar Diamonds plc has only one class of securities (ordinary shares) and has not applied or agreed to have any of its securities admitted or traded on any other exchange or trading platform.


 

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