Jacob Joseph

DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA - Petra Diamonds, a leading supplier of rough diamonds, has announced a three-year major expansion plan for Williamson Diamonds Mine at Mwadui in Shinyanga region of Tanzania.

According to Petra’s last year second half interim financial results,  the company is in the process of concluding the design and planning work for delivery of a 10 million tonnes operation.

The expansion would enable the firm, which has 75% interest in Williamson mine, “to contribute 600,000 carats annually to the Group,” the statement said.

The project is planned to commerce in the second half of this year after completion of bulk sampling operations that will end before June 2010.

Meanwhile, the company announced the recovery of several small fancy pink diamonds, for which Williamson diamonds mine is famous for, including a 2.38 carat fancy ‘bubblegum’ pink which sold for close to US$40,000 per carat.

Petra expects that the new plant and processing techniques to be introduced will improve diamond values in the future, and that values of US$200 per carat are achievable over the medium term.

Petra acquired Williamson mine’s 75% interest in November 2008, the firm is renowned for producing large, high value diamonds and fancy pink diamonds.  

The Mwadui mine is an open pit operation mining in a 146 hectare Mwadui kimberlite pipe.

Major resource is estimated at 40 million carats with a potential to ramp up to 500,000 carats per annum.

Petra Diamonds is the leading supplier of rough diamonds. In South Africa, Petra has interests in five producing mines - Cullinan, Koffiefontein, Helam, Sedibeng and Star - and has also agreed to acquire the Kimberley Underground mines from De Beers - an acquisition that is expected to be complete soon.

These mines are noted for the production of valuable diamonds, mainly at the Cullinan mine which is famed as the source of the largest rough gem diamonds ever found.

More recently, an internally flawless, fancy vivid blue diamond of 7.03 carats from the Cullinan mine sold for $9.4 million, or $1.35 million per carat, in May 2009 and a white diamond of over 507 carats was recovered in September 2009. Another 168-carat white diamond was recovered in the same production series as the 507-carat diamond which was sold on 26 November 2009 for $6.28 million.