The diamonds?...The zinc??I questioned G. Lytle (PR. for MOA) about MOA's diamond holdings in South Africa and wondered when production would resume. I also asked what price our gem quality diamonds would have to fetch to be economical. This was July 14, 2009.
At that point Mr. Lytle wrote; " As you know EET is the operator of the Etruscan Diamond Ltd. (EDL) and based on the information they have provided to us:
EDL's average tender price per carat for rough stones in fiscal 2008 (Dec.07 thru Nov. 08) was US$512;
The buyer's offering price per carat in Dec. 08 was US$125 which resulted in the Blue Gum Project being put on care and maintenance;
The Spring 09 price per carat was in the US$ 350-400 range;
EDL requires a price per rough carat of US$ 450 to reopen operations at Blue Gum.
He also wrote; "Unfortunately, I can offer no guidance as to when production may resume at Blue Gum as it is largely dependent on an upswing in the global economy and market demand for rough stones to push prices back to that US$ 450+ per carat range.
"A lot has happened since July, 14 09!! The global economy has gotten back on track...commodities have risen substantially and Endeavour Financial Corp., (EDV) has recently taken over EET. EDV management has indicated that they want to make EET a mid-tier gold producer by joining EET with other gold producers. They have speculated that they may divest themselves of EET's diamond operations in order to focus on this goal.
I do not know what the price of rough diamonds are going for "today" but I would wager that they maybe in that sweet spot of US$450...If this is the case then MOA may have their position with EET (12%) bought out and substantial monies may be coming our way very soon. I also seem to remember that at one point we had 2M shares of EET. Is this correct? It might be fun to possess these shares if one day EET did actually become a mid-tier gold producer!
On the subject of zinc...It is now $1.15. It has "truly" gone ballistic in the last 6 moths! So what is happening at Bobby's Pond??? Seems a little disturbingly quiet.