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RAPAPORT...
Diamond Fields International Ltd. confirmed that Namibia renewed its mining license for the ML32 concession, which is situated north of Luderitz, for 10 years with respect to diamonds and precious minerals. The license has been reissued to a company subsidiary, the Namibian Diamond Company, which is 70 percent owned by Diamond Fields . The license covers an area of more than 17,600 hectares and extends from Luderitz to the Galdovia Reef along the Namibian coast from the low water mark to approximately the 45 meter bathymetric contour. The concession has historically produced more than 88,000 carats annually from shallow water, small boat diver operations, and hosts part of the Boat Bay gravel bodies that extend in to the adjacent mid-water mining concession of ML111, also held by Diamond Fields. Sampling undertaken by the mining company has outlined a potential inferred mineralized resource of 42 million cubic meters within the Boat Bay gravels, representing the largest known potential resource within the company's marine diamond concessions. The shallow water reaches of the concession are currently being mined under contract by independent small boat operations. Ian Ransome, the chief executive Diamond Fields, said, ''ML32 is important in so much that it not only houses part of the Boat Bay gravel bodies, but has the potential to deploy mining platforms in the shallow water reaches, which have historically yielded good diamond production, similar to those successfully tested in the Namdeb concessions.''
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