PDF was officially established in its current format in 2005 by merging the diamond assets of Efidium and Dorado.
The development of PDF’s exploration assets will be carried out, under the strategic direction of the company, by selected professional companies, in particular Pangea Exploration, through exclusive service contracts.
Pangea Exploration and its principals, have more than 20 years experience in exploration and mine development within Africa, examples include titanium and gold in Mozambique, gold in Tanzania and gold, diamonds and vanadium in South Africa. In terms of the service agreement, exploration and selected administrative services are performed for the group under the direction of the PDF board, and Pangea Exploration employs skilled resources to perform these services.
All exploration budgets are prepared by Pangea Exploration under specific instruction from the board, and which the board then reviews and approves. Pangea Exploration reports to the board on a monthly basis.
PDF is incorporated in the Isle of Man.
PDF’s diamond assets are at various stages of exploration development, ranging from early exploration through bulk sampling to a project at pilot mining stage, situated in Angola. PDF’s projects are all located within highly prospective diamond-bearing geological environments. Whist alluvial deposits constitute the primary focus of the company; a number of the target areas are also located within regions of kimberlite potential. This potential will be evaluated later, on an opportunistic basis. Since 2003, PDF has established a solid operational base with a total of 26 professionals stationed at project sites and in regional offices located in Bangui, Kinshasa, Johannesburg and Luanda.
The founding shareholders, executives and affiliates of PDF have, over the last 20 years, established a successful track record for the creation of shareholder value in mineral exploration and mine development throughout the African Continent.
PDF believes that the conservatively-forecasted supply/demand fundamentals of diamonds and resultant positive medium term prognosis for the industry is attractive for new diamond mining entrants. In short, whilst world rough diamond production is expected to remain unchanged for several years, diamond jewellery demand is growing at a healthy rate in line with the real GDP growth for the major diamond consuming countries and new emerging diamond markets. The resultant supply/demand deficit should ensure that rough prices continue to increase in the short to medium term.
The African continent is responsible for over 61% of global diamond production. In addition, geologically highly prospective countries for diamond exploration such as Angola, the DRC and the CAR have recently undergone significant positive political, social and fiscal changes. PDF, as a consequence, is concentrating its diamond exploration efforts within Africa and specifically within these countries.
Since 2003 and prior to the IPO PDF had raised approximately US$20m to pursue its objectives. This has comprised initial seed capital from its founders and subsequent capital raisings from prominent international resource and private equity funds, each capital raising having taken place at higher valuations.
PDF’s mission is to develop up to three fully operational diamond mines by the end of 2009. The exploration and mine development strategy being implemented by the company to achieve this mission is summarised as follows:-
• to spread its projects across at least four countries, thereby minimising any political risks;
• to focus, initially, on alluvial projects which have a short development and capital payback periods, thereby reducing risks on capital
..exposure;
• to acquire, assess and evaluate a large number of early-stage prospects and, by applying rigorous selection criteria, selecting only the
..best prospects for continued further evaluation;
• continue exploration on a phased approach to confirm technical parameters, thereby limiting technical risks; and
• developing a limited number of economically viable projects, by modular and incremental production rate increases, into mining
..operations, thereby limiting large initial capital outlays.
This strategy involves project progression through a number of exploration and evaluation stages along the process of development. Projects not meeting the evaluation criteria at the end of each stage are no longer pursued and the equipment is transferred to another project.
Admitted to AIM Market in October 2006 and trading under “PDF”. |
