Speculation I have kept quiet for a long time, but I must say that this speculation about De Beers contract with IMDH is quite interesting.
I have not seem any communication from either De Beers, IMDH or Afri-Can talking about this contract existence. It is obvious that some people have started to fear something that is only speculation.
Furthermore, if such a contract does exists, no one knows the content and no one can speculate about Afri-Can having to wait for De Beers to finish its supposed sampling.
One thing for sure is that even if De Beers has a contract, they cannot stay at sea for many months in a row.
Why, because the nature of sampling is to tests areas and that sampling has to stop on a regular basis to analyze the findings before deciding of the further step ahead, being geophysical survey, more sampling, trial mining or mining.
This being said, any statement saying that Afri-Can has to wait until the De Beers contract end and that the vessel his no longer available to Afri-Can is pure speculation.
As anyone tried to get information from Afri-Can on this? No? so why speculate on the potential delay of sampling when the date of departure has never been announced publicly?
I believe that the first step is to get information about the survey analysis and then they will state when the sampling will start. Any way, this is what they have stated in press releases.