A Canadian-Saudi joint venture company has been granted a mining license by the Saudi government to extract world-class zinc, copper, silver and gold metals from the Red Sea. The exclusive mining license is for 30 years - extending over the Atlantis II Deeps, one of the largest hydrothermal polymetallic deposits in the world, located within the Red Sea. The latest historic resource estimates (not NI 43-101 compliant) of Atlantis II Deeps suggest tremendous economic potential with approximately 1.83 million tons of zinc, 402,000 tons of copper, 3432 tons of silver contained within 89.5 million tones of ore (dry salt free). Under the terms of the joint venture agreement, Diamond Fields International Ltd. (DFI) owns 50.1 percent while Manafa International Trade Company of Saudi Arabia (Manafa) owns the rest. The project will be developed in defined stages, commencing with a Scoping Study to start immediately and designed to test the accuracy of the huge volume of historic data available on the deposit. The Atlantis II Deeps has a surface area of 60 square kilometers (23 square miles) and contains an extensive volume of metal enriched mud, the consistency of soft toothpaste. Extensive historical work has been conducted on the project, with a total of 628 cores having been taken, with a total length of approximately 4km. The bulk of the cores are in an excellent state of preservation, which will enable Diamond Fields to produce a preliminary NI 43-101 compliant resource statement for the deposit. Historical exploration work undertaken by the former Preussag AG culminated in a program to demonstrate the technical viability of mining the deposit and processing it through to the production of metals. This was accomplished through a maritime test pilot mining operation conducted over a 4-month period from March to June 1979, and resulting in the production of metals using hydrometallurgy. The work demonstrated that the metal-rich sediments could be successfully raised from the sea floor and processed, DFI said in a statement. More than $70 million has been spent to date in research work conducted on the deposit and funded by the government of Saudi Arabia, DFI added. Diamond Fields has reached agreement with David Heydon, former CEO of Nautilus Minerals Inc., to spearhead development of this project. In a statement, Wayne Malouf, DFI's chief executive officer, said “Diamond Fields is pleased to be teaming with Manafa to develop this exceptional project and excited at the opportunity to bring DFI's specialist marine mining expertise to bear on this world-class deposit.”
