Vast ready to hit the ground running on Diamond mining
VAST Resources said it has established a road map for moving forward with a plan to mine the Heritage concession following meetings with local community leaders in Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwean parastatal Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company (ZCDC).
The agreements concerning the Heritage Diamond Concession will now be directly between the Vast and the ZCDC rather than the local community, but the local community will continue to be a beneficial recipient of shared profits, as per the original agreement.
Vast said it expects to begin mining at Heritage before the end of the year and has everything in place to “hit the ground running” once it finalises contractual terms.
The group raised £900,000 through an equity sale in May following a £600,000 fundraise a month earlier to help fund its operations at the Baita Plai metal mine in Romania and the Heritage diamond mine in Zimbabwe.
A separate financing process is ongoing – a draft term sheet was previously received from a Swiss Bank for a US$10mln loan – and due diligence is being conducted.
Vast intends to bring forward some of the necessary pre-production expenditure for the Baita Plai project, which is expected to cut lead times to the start of production.
This work will include the start of installation work for a seven-kilometre tailings pipe to the tailings dam and the installation of new and independent electricity supply.
Andrew Prelea the CEO said:
Following the meeting with local community leaders in Zimbabwe and ZDCD, chief executive Andrew Prelea said: “I plan to return to Zimbabwe shortly for what I hope will be the finalisation of the contractual terms and also to establish the commencement of the project.
“This amendment to the structure of the arrangement should not only accelerate the process to commencement but should also provide the company with further opportunities to work with the ZCDC.”
On the group’s financing requirements, he said: “We are confident on all fronts that we will be fully funded very shortly.” – Proactive Investors