RE: Share Buyback & ShortGood info on share buy-back - 10 days will tell the storey if VAA has used the low sp to be buying. I was just checking to see if short info was available yet and this was posted at stockwatch:
Vaaldiam Resources Ltd (2)
Symbol VAA
Shares Issued 205,161,071
Close 2008-02-21 C$ 0.45
Recent Sedar Documents
Vaaldiam ponders Brauna mine possibility
2008-02-22 16:13 ET - Street Wire
by Will Purcell
Vaaldiam Resources Ltd. thinks it can double its Brazilian diamond production by putting its Brauna kimberlites into production. Selling its story to grumpy diamond investors is proving difficult as Vaaldiam's shares slip slowly from their 50-cent perch. That is a big drop from the $1.70 that more enthusiastic folks paid two years ago. Word of big and coloured diamonds failed to halt the slide, but the company thinks a big test of Brauna-3 will prove its point.
The plan
Vaaldiam's president, Ken Johnson, said construction of a larger plant to handle about 5,000 tonnes of Brauna-3 kimberlite is under way. The front-end parts that will process the rock are being built in Brazil, while the recovery system will come from South Africa. The plant will handle the concentrate at a rate of 10 tonnes per hour, fast enough for the sample, but not for a mine. The new plant will allow Vaaldiam to handle the expected big diamonds with better care than its old equipment did.
Vaaldiam will collect its sample by digging vertical shafts and the work will start within a few weeks. Rain apparently will not be a showstopper, as the Brauna project lies inland at the northern end of Brazil's savannah district. There is enough rain to support the scrubby brauna trees that give the project its moniker, but the semi-arid region also supports cactus and is comparable with Arizona. "They pray for rain there," Mr. Johnson said, adding that dropping water levels were a problem for residents.
Savannah, perhaps, but Bahia is no desert. Vaaldiam's project is in an area receiving about 80 centimetres of rain yearly, much of it between November and the end of March. The rainfall average matches the annual average of Toronto, an unlikely home for brauna and cactus, and it is four times higher than the drier parts of Arizona.
As a result, the odd heavy shower during the wet season can occasionally delay Vaaldiam. Mr. Johnson said the company does not send its crews into the shafts while it is raining for safety reasons, but otherwise it keeps on working with the aid of pumps. Most of the big dig will occur during the drier season, which will limit any rain delays.
The encouragement
Mr. Johnson said he had no doubt the Brauna kimberlites could support a mine, although the scale of the operation will be modest, based on the size of the bodies. The Toronto-based geologist suggested a mining rate of up to 600,000 tonnes of kimberlite per year could yield up to 125,000 carats yearly. That suggests a target grade of about 0.2 carat per tonne.
The goal is practical, based on the outcome of a 40-tonne test last year. Vaaldiam recovered 8.3 carats, for a grade of 0.21 carat per tonne. The average diamond weighed an encouragingly coarse 0.14 carat, helped by one gem weighing over one carat and two others topping one-half carat.
Mr. Johnson is optimistic the big test of Brauna-3 will yield significant numbers of larger gems, which will support the company's value expectations. Recent recoveries from two Brauna dikes augur well for the project. The company pulled an eight-carat gem out of a small test of Brauna-8. Earlier, Vaaldiam found two fancy pink diamonds in the same body.
The Brauna-3 pipe covers about two hectares. It should be suitable for open pit mining, but its small size is the driving influence on the scale of the project. The dikes could also add kimberlite to a Brauna mine plan. The bodies are up to 10 metres wide in places, occur within hard granite and are nearly vertical. The Brauna dikes should therefore prove easier to mine than the narrow fissures of South Africa that occur in much softer host rocks.
Vaaldiam closed down two cents to 45 cents Thursday on 219,000 shares.