Adelaide, Nov 20, 2006 AEST (ABN Newswire) - The Ellendale diamond mine in northern Western Australia may be further drilled to three times its current depth as owner Kimberley Diamond Company NL eyes what it calls a "massive extension of Ellendale's prospective resource".
The move is in addition to a current production ramp up which by June next year will elevate Kimberley, a white and yellow gemstone operation, to the ranks of the world's fifth largest diamond producer.
Addressing the 2006 World Diamond Conference in Perth today, Kimberley's Executive Chairman, Mr Miles Kennedy, said Ellendale's output - currently the subject of a production ramp up from Pipes Nine and Four - was contained within 130 metres of surface.
"We now have access to drill rigs capable of 450 metres depth which we hope to use at Pipes 4 and 9 over the next year or so.
"Our reconciliations since production commenced in 2002 have been within 2% of exploration drill indicated expectations," he said.
"We are now very interested in massively expanding Ellendale's resource base in Pipes 4 and 9 down at depth and have already taken out more than 50,000 tonnes of sample with the rigs from 6 new pipes as part of a A$#10 million exploration schedule for 2006-2007."
Kimberley has invested A$180 million to date on Ellendale with the current A$26 million upgrade over the 47-hectare Pipe Nine designed to increase output from 300t per hour to over 450t per hour and reduce production costs. Ellendale 4's production plant has just completed commissioning and is producing at around 12,000 tonnes a day.
This is expected to lift total mine output Mr Kennedy said, to 8.8 million tonnes per annum by June for a diamond recovery of 650,000 carats.
Ellendale has to June 2006 processed nearly 6 million tonnes to retrieve 388,000 carats at an average sale price of A$264 a carat for revenue pfA$103 million.
Contact
Kevin Skinner
Senior Consultant
FIELD PUBLIC RELATIONS
231 South Road
MILE END SA 5031
Tel: (08) 8234 9555
Fax: (08) 8234 9566
Mob: 0414 822 631
kevin@fieldpr.com.au
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