BDI gets $10.5 m from 2006 diamond sale

London Stock Exchange-listed diamond miner BDI Mining Corp said that a total of 50,821 carats of high-value gem diamonds from its Cempaka mine in South Kalimantan were sold in 2006, generating revenues of US$10.5 million.

The company said in a recently published preliminary report that the expansion of Cempaka's processing plant capacity from 28,000 bank cubic meters (BCM's) per month to 50,000 BCM's was successfully completed on time and budget during 2006, which will enable future increases in production capacity to be implemented quickly and easily.

The company added that during 2006 initial diamond production from the nearby Main Channel was completed and over 700 carats were recovered, increasing confidence in the long term potential of Cempaka's operations.

Exploration drilling in late 2006 confirmed a previously undiscovered extension to the Danau Seran channel - the evaluation of which is continuing. Operations at Danau Seran were scheduled to be completed in early 2007, but with this exploration success diamond production at Danau Seran could continue into early 2008, the company said.

"While many of the planned improvements and expansions at Cempaka were successfully implemented, the current diamond market conditions are weaker than those enjoyed during 2005. This resulted in an average price received for diamonds sold of US$207/ct compared to US$299/ct in 2005," the company said.(alex)