News

July 16, 2008

Kopane Shrugs Off Recent Bid Talk To Mosey On Towards Increased Production

By Alastair Ford

There’s nothing like a bit of stirring from the Kenny family to muddy a diamond miner’s cooking pot. It’s not yet beyond living memory that the Kennys’ Firestone Diamonds took a stake in another Aim-listed diamond development company, causing all sorts of angst among investors and directors in Dublin and London. The Kennys are a canny bunch, and if they haven’t yet hit the motherlode with their own company, it’s not for want of trying. They’ve shown themselves a dab hand at turning a buck, a euro or a rand with an investment or two over the years, and they’ve kept Firestone afloat by hook or by crook, when drilling and sampling hasn’t delivered the goods. The investment in African Diamonds ended up a nice little earner, and Firestone hasn’t been averse to the idea of taking further stakes in other companies.

These days Firestone’s MK1 kimberlite pipe at Tsabong in Botswana still looks a decent enough punt when all the familiar hit and miss rates of kimberlite exploration are factored in. The company has just raised £5 million at 85p per share to undertake further work on MK1, BK11, BK16. But that price represents a sizeable discount to where the shares were at less than two months ago. Back then they topped out at over 200p, as the market anticipated great things from MK1. A recent update was less...