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RAPAPORT... Rockwell Diamonds Inc. completed its acquisition of the Tirisano Mine project in South Africa. Rockwell agreed to purchase Tirisano, formerly Blue Gum, in September 2010 for $4.65 million, which was funded by $2.01 million in internal funds along with equity funds, through issuing 2.6 million Rockwell ordinary shares. During the transition months, Rockwell has since established a mining fleet, processing plant and final recovery capacity onsite in order to progress to commercial production.
The fully containerized Holpan recovery plant has been relocated to Tirisano and a barrel screen from Wouterspan has been installed, which doubled the front-end capacity. During the next six months, the focus at Tirisano will be on optimizing the mining and plant efficiencies, including the development of long-term solutions for the front-end. Work will also continue on the concept designs to increase the plant's capacity.
Rockwell will work with SRK Consulting Africa to develop the geotechnical parameters that are being used by open pit mining consultancy, Tacmin Madini, to finalize the new design and extraction plan.
"We are delighted that this transaction has now been completed as Tirisano is of strategic importance to Rockwell's long term growth objectives,'' said James Campbell, the chief executive of Rockwell. ''The quality and price per carat of the stones recovered at Tirisano during the commissioning and recovery testing phase are encouraging as these exceeded what was achieved by the mine's previous operators. We are confident that the mine will make a meaningful contribution to our objective of sustainably ramping up Rockwell's production profile. We also anticipate that over the long term, the mine will enhance the company's cash flows and plan to apply these to create the maximum long term returns for shareholders."
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