Sierra Leone serves up early results for Cream Minerals

Preliminary work has yielded Cream Minerals (CMA-V) 46 diamonds in the first four days of operations on its Sewa River exploration license in Sierra Leone.

The diamonds were recovered from the upstream end of the roughly 4-km river section of the property, and range in size from 2.92 carats to 0.08 carats.

The stones weigh a total of about 21.5 carats and more than 90% of them are considered to be of gem quality, the company said in a statement today.

On March 11, Cream Minerals received its mining license and permits to move ahead with its Sewa River bulk sampling program and plans to start immediately.

The company has already assembled and tested its heavy mineral processing plant. The plant includes a gold recovery circuit.

The Sewa River is about 500 metres wide with large islands downstream of several of the diabase dykes that cross the river at right angles.

Due to very low water levels, nine of the dykes are exposed in sand bars in the downstream portion of the stretch of river covered by the mining license.

The dykes act as large natural grooves across the river bed, which can trap heavy minerals such as diamonds and gold.

The Sewa River itself is one of this West African nation’s major rivers.

In the dry season the river is fairly shallow at depths of about 2-4 metres. During the rainy season the low terraces surrounding the river are normally flooded.

The license is located in the lower portion of the Sewa River about 10 km above the point where the river enters the coastal plane.

The property can be accessed by road from the town of Bo, the main commercial center in southwestern Sierra Leone, about 230 km or five hours by car from Freetown.

Cream Minerals, which owns 70% of the project, is focusing on evaluating alternative mining methods at Sewa River and on developing a better sense of its resource potential.

In order to export the stones, Cream Minerals must submit them to the Government of Sierra Leone Gold and Diamond Office, which will determine the amount of royalties that need to be paid.

That evaluation process yields an estimate of the total value of the diamonds. The gems are also submitted to the Kimberley process for certificates of origin.

Cream Minerals notes that apart from diamonds, the Sewa River contains lilac colored garnets, ilmenite and iron oxide gravel fragments, with similar density to the target diamonds, as well as fine-grained flake gold.

News of the discovery sent the Vancouver-based company’s shares up 1.5 apiece to 46.5 on a trading volume of 108,700 shares.

Cream Minerals has 47.9 million shares outstanding and a 52-week trading range of between 31 to $1.38.