KimCor commissions Newlands plant

KimCor Diamonds plc, a diamond producer and exploration company with properties in South Africa and Tanzania, announces that the expansion and upgrade of the Newlands diamond mine processing plant has been completed.

HIGHLIGHTS

* Commissioning of the plant commenced on 25 March;

* The plant is quickly expected to reach its new capacity of 37,000
tonnes per month (’tpm’);

* Plant capacity has been increased from 4,500 tpm to 37,000 tpm;

* The plant will process 7,000 tonnes of kimberlite ore with an average
grade of 23 carats per hundred tonnes (’cpht’); and

* The plant will process 30,000 tonnes of tailings stockpile with an
average grade of 7 cpht.

The expanded plant design includes a new crushing circuit which will crush kimberlite ore to 6mm for improved diamond recovery.

In addition to plant expansion, mine management have completed shaft deepening and underground development to access and mine increased tonnage of kimberlite ore. Further underground development will continue to year end at which time kimberlite mining and processing is expected to increase to 15,000 tpm.

Martyn Churchouse, Chief Executive Officer commented ‘The local management team continues to meet both its scheduled completion dates and capital budgets on the various mine and processing plant upgrades and expansions. This is particularly the case with Newlands as the same team have simultaneously completed the Phase One expansion at SMI4.

‘We have now provided the Newlands mine management with the infrastructure it requires to significantly increase mine production and we have set targets that will see the mining and processing of underground ores double during 2009′.

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