MINING IN AFRICA SPECIAL — SouthernEra active in five

When it comes to exploring for diamonds in Africa, SouthernEra (TSE) takes a back seat to no one. The Toronto-based junior is currently active in four countries on the continent: South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

It also has an interest in a coal and platinum prospect in Botswana and a pair of gold properties in Swaziland.

African mines have produced 72% of the world’s diamonds. SouthernEra’s African holdings, President Christopher Jennings says, give the company major interests in the two most productive cratons in the world, namely Kaapvaal and Angola/Zaire/Zambia.

In South Africa, at its Kimberley East project, the company has sampled three kimberlites, and it believes it may have a fourth kimberlite on a 5,000-acre farm property.

“We’re in the middle of a productive area with superb chemistry,” Jennings says.

Botswana, whose Jwaneng mine is the richest diamond mine in the world, has the highest ratio (1 in 43) of economic to total pipes. Jennings says SouthernEra’s licences in the country cover virtually all unexplained diamond or kimberlite mineral anomalies. The company has an 80% interest in five licences covering 5.6 million acres.

In Zimbabwe, the company has prospecting licences in the central and southwestern regions.

SouthernEra’s prospecting licences in Zambia are in the eastern and western regions of the country; the company made its selection after reviewing the exploration work of De Beers between 1960 and 1982.

Jennings says the company’s 50%-owned polymetallic prospect in Botswana has the potential to be a Bushveld-type producer of platinum group metals, nickel, copper and gold. Overlaying the deposit are five coal seams up to 27 ft. thick and 75 ft. in aggregate.

In Swaziland, the company has applied for two former gold producers, Piggs Peak and Daisy. Jennings says Piggs Peak has the potential to be a high-tonnage, open-pit producer. Daisy (for which a licence was recently granted) is much smaller but of a higher grade.