Sale of the Fissure Mines

Petra Diamonds Limited (“Petra”) has, along with its black economic empowerment partners, commenced a public disposal process in respect of its fissure mine operations, namely the Helam, Sedibeng and Star mines in South Africa (the “Fissure Mines”).

Through Petra’s focus on the development of its major assets, it has evolved into a successful producer from underground and surface, high tonnage kimberlite pipe mines. The Fissure Mines have therefore, over time, become non-core to Petra, both in terms of their revenue and resource base. Petra is of the opinion that the Fissure Mines have the potential to deliver strong returns under the ownership of an operator to whom they would be core assets.

Bids will be considered for any one or combination of the Helam, Sedibeng or Star mines.

QuestCo (Pty) Limited (“Questco”) has been appointed by Petra to manage this disposal process.

Interested Parties may request documentation relating to this disposal process by contacting QuestCo on the contact details as shown below:

The documentation includes an overview of the Fissure Mines, a description of the envisaged sale process, a confidentiality undertaking and a credentials questionnaire.

Under no circumstances should the management or employees of Petra be contacted directly. All information that an Interested Party would require at this stage of the disposal process is included in the abovementioned documentation.

Interested Parties are invited to submit expressions of interest, along with signed confidentiality undertakings and completed credentials questionnaires by no later than 5:00pm BST/ 6:00pm CAT on Friday, 21 September in order to be considered for participation in the disposal process.

The Fissure Mines comprise three mines, namely Helam, Sedibeng and Star. The Sedibeng operation is an amalgamation of the Messina and Dancarl fissure mines, as well as the recently discovered kimberlite pipe blow in the vicinity of the Sedibeng operations.

All three of the Fissure Mines are located in South Africa. Helam is located 70km west of Rustenburg in the North West Province, Sedibeng is located 80km north west of Kimberley in the Northern Cape Province, and Star is located 4 km south of Welkom in the Free State Province.

Petra is of the view that the Fissure Mines present a rare opportunity to purchase high quality, sustainable kimberlite operations, for inter alia the following reasons:

• long strike length kimberlite fissure operations;
• proven track record of production for more than 50 years;
• long life of mines with 5 million carats of resources;
• high quality diamonds - the average value per carat is high in comparison to the world average;
• production is not subject to any supply/off-take agreement (other than the State Diamond Trader allocation, as applied in South Africa);
• high quality infrastructure in place – relatively little short-term capital expenditure required;
• the consistent production profile of kimberlite operations, but on a manageable scale for a smaller operator; and
• real potential to deliver strong returns under the ownership of an operator to whom they are core assets.

To view pictures of examples of the Fissure Mines’ production, click here.