Bob Moriarty
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Dec 19, 2022
Since September we have had an exciting advance in the price of silver and gold along with the precious metals shares. But nothing goes up forever or goes straight up. As a result of the 37% increase in the price of silver from September 1st the DSI for silver reached a high of 88 on the 9th of December and silver seems to have topped for now at $24.11 on December 13th. A short pause would be appropriate to give the DSI a breather.
I’ve been writing about gold and silver companies lately because since September, they have been the place to be. But we are in a correction for now.
(Click on image to enlarge)
So I thought it might be appropriate to write about a resource company that is not involved with gold or silver. So here is Diamcor Mining (DMI-V). It is a Canadian company that owns and operates an alluvial diamond project right next to the biggest diamond mine in South Africa, the De Beers owned Venetia mine.
In 2008 Diamcor began the process of doing a deal with De Beers on two farms next to the Venetia Mine with a total land position of about 5900 ha. The farms are called Krone and Endora. Diamcor called the project the Krone-Endora at Venetia property, which is pretty confusing. The deal was completed with De Beers in March of 2011. Diamcor announced at the same time financing of the property through a long-term strategic alliance with Tiffany of New York. Initially Tiffany advanced $5.5 million to obtain the right of first refusal for 100% of the production from DMI at market prices. In 2012 Tiffany advanced an additional $4 million as the company advanced.
Diamcor has done a brilliant job of getting into bed with the biggest names in the business as partners. De Beers is the largest diamond cartel in the world controlling the production and sales of the vast majority of diamonds worldwide. The richest man in the world, Bernard Arnault, owns Tiffany and Company.
When I was presented with information about Diamcor several things popped out at me at once. Why on earth would De Beers welcome a tiny junior mining company next door to their biggest producer in South Africa and why should the owner of Tiffany finance the operation?
I’ve been to South Africa and Brazil and visited both hard rock diamond mines and alluvial. The Krone-Endora properties are alluvial. The Venetia mine is hard rock. The economics and processing of each type deposit are entirely different. Frankly De Beers has zero interest in running an alluvial diamond project with what would be limited production for them.
Likewise with Tiffany, they always need diamonds and by financing DMI they are getting right of first refusal for what wouldn’t even qualify as a rounding error on their balance sheet. And one thing I learned in my visits to diamond properties was that alluvial diamonds have traveled from the diamond pipes made up of the source material called Kimberlite after the world famous Kimberly diamond district. But as diamonds roll along with the sand and gravel of the decayed Kimberlite, the poor diamonds tend to break up leaving much lower grade material but with more valuable diamonds per carat.
Once financed Diamcor got to work building their mine and processing plant. Shares of Diamcor went from about $.12 a share in 2009 to a high of $1.90 four years later before getting caught up in the resource shares slump that ran into the end of 2015 and start of 2016. From December of 2015 the stock shot from about $.65 to a high of $1.50 by the fall of 2016.
Over the past ten years $100 million has been invested in the project. The company began test mining and were moving right along when the South African government shut down many mining operations in the country in response to the Covid-19 Plandemic. The company partially began to resume operations in October of 2020 but at a reduced 75% rates. Issues related to supply chain problems remain, however, the company has been growing revenue quarter over quarter.
Due to the high quality of the diamonds and a number of large stones above 40 carats DMI is getting about $246 per carat, more than twice the world average for stones.
Sanctions have been put on Russian diamonds that make up 30% of the world market so the price Diamcor gets should naturally increase with the reduced supply. In a press release of December 8th, 2022 DMI reported sales of over $2 million for the quarter, an increase of 121% over the carats sold in the last quarter.
Economically the coming years looks a lot like a box of ferrets with the outcome quite uncertain. I am comfortable suggesting that in a time of crisis you want to own something real rather than pieces of paper. I believe Diamcor has a bright future ahead with both increased sales and increased profit. When times get really tough, you can always carry a diamond in your pocket.
Diamcor is an advertiser. I do not own shares. Do your own due diligence.
Diamcor Mining Inc
DMI-V $.205 (Dec 16, 2022)
DMIFF-OTCBB 122.5 million shares
Diamcor Mining website
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Bob Moriarty
President: 321gold
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