Stellar Diamonds PLC (LON:STEL) will be focused on moving the Tongo project in Sierra Leone into funding and development this year, it said, as it posted half year results.
It's been a busy period with the mining licence for the 1.45mln-carat Dyke-1 resource submitted last year.
The final stages of the application are now completed and the recommendation of the Minerals Advisory Board (MAB) to the Minister of Mines is now awaited.
A preliminary economic assessment has indicated an initial four-year open pit mining project would cost $24.8mln and produce around 118,000 carats of diamonds valued at $270/ct.
Elsewhere, trial mining has continued at the five-hectare Baoulé site in Guinea where the group is now 73% of the way through the 100,000 tonne bulk sample.
The firm expects the trial to be finished before the next rainy season (around July) and thereafter to establish a maiden resource. In-house modelling of previous drilling has indicated a target of over 22mln tonnes, and at an average target grade of 12.7cpht, a diamond resource of around 3 million carats.
Three diamond sales have been completed in Antwerp which have realised US$1 million in revenues, the firm also noted.
For the period, the loss before tax was US$886,463 compared to a loss of US$956,191 in the same period of 2014, while cash at hand increased to US$373,602 compared to US$65,649 last year.