PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed POZ Minerals on Tuesday told shareholders that it will throw its hat in the ring for the Ellendale diamond mine, in Western Australia.
The state government in late August announced that it was looking for a new owner to reopen the Ellendale mine, with expressions of interest (EOI) expected to close at the end of November.
AdvertisementThe Minister of Mines and Petroleum will choose the successful candidate after considering the expressions of interest, and a successful company will likely be announced in early 2019.
POZ told shareholders that the company was well placed as a participant in the EOI process, as it is already developing the Blinda diamond project, which surrounds the Ellendale diamond mine lease area, and has already been granted mining leases over the surrounding Blinda project.
AdvertisementThe company said that the consolidation of these two projects was the logical outcome for the area to enable significant operational synergies, making the development of the whole area considerably more efficient.
POZ added that the acquisition of Ellendale would be a major step in building a branded diamond mining company producing fancy yellow diamonds, for which both the Blinda and Ellendale operations are famous.
Ellendale was operational between 2002 and 2015 and provided nearly half of the world’s fancy yellow diamonds, producing nearly 424 000 ct of diamonds.