Stellar Diamonds takes another step towards Sierra Leone mining licence

Diamond development company Stellar Diamonds gained environmental approval for a key mining licence in Sierra Leone for the Togo portion of its proposed Togo-Tonguma mine.

Following receipt of the environmental licence from Sierra Leone's Environmental Protection Agency, the company said it now expected the National Minerals Agency to draw up the Tongo mining licence, which will then be considered by the government's mining minister.

Stellar chief executive Karl Smithson spoke of potential at the Tongo-Tonguma mine.

"The next milestone will be the drafting of the Tongo Mining Licence. Tongo forms part of the proposed 4.5m carat combined Tongo-Tonguma mine development which has the potential to be the second largest hard rock diamond mine in West Africa and have one of the highest $/t kimberlite ore values globally. We look forward to providing a further update in due course."

An independent mine plan, based on over 66,000m of drilling completed so far, indicates there is more than 4m carats of diamonds in the kimberlite, which are expected to generate gross revenues of more than $1.2bn over a 21 year life of mine.

Initial production at Tongo-Tonguma is scheduled to occur in the first year of development, building up to over 200,000 carats per annum, with a weighted average modelled diamond value of $229 per carat.