SouthernEra Diamonds (SDM-T, SRE-L) is upping its presence in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) by taking a 74% interest in roughly 2,800 sq. km. of diamond prospective land.
In Toronto on Wednesday May 24, the Toronto-based diamond exploration company’s shares were up 7.8% to 48 on just 1,000 shares.
The company signed an agreement with Nyumba Ya Akiba SPRL for an interest in eight exploration permits in the Kabinda area, Kasai Oriental Province.
With the acquisition SouthernEra now has 16,000 sq. km in the DRC included in that number is its joint-venture properties with BHP Billiton (BHP-N,BLT-L).
President and chief executive, Alasdair MacPhee, says the move underlines the company’s strategy to make the DRC a significant part of the company’s growth going forward.
In a press release, MacPhee explained the company’s bullishness on the country by pointing out that inspite of a lack of systematic exploration in the pasy 40 years, the DRC continues to be a high volume producer.
The company plans to complete a detailed reconnaissance stream sampling program and follow it up with an aeromagnetic survey over anomalous areas. The aim being to find the kimberlite sources to local alluvial diamonds.
The property lies on a “kimberlite emplacement corridor” extending from the renowned diamond-producing Lunda Norte Province in neighboring Angola, northeast into the DRC.
In addition to newly acquired interests, most of SouthernEra’s permits lie within this corridor which has yet to be fully explored. Only 11 kimberlites have been identified to date there as opposed to over 700 in the neighbouring Angolan section.
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