Heritage Cases

West Coast Resources (Pty) Ltd (WCR) is a private company owned by Trans Hex Operations (Pty) Ltd (Trans Hex), RE:CM and Calible Limited (RAC), the Government of South Africa, Dinoka Investment Holdings (Pty) Ltd and the Namaqualand Diamond Trust Fund, a broad based community trust representing historically disadvantaged persons from the Namaqualand community. Trans Hex has entered into an agreement with the other shareholders of WCR to oversee and manage the operations of WCR. WCR is re-establishing a diamond mining operation in the Koingnaas area on the Namaqualand coast, which was previously mined by De Beers and under the existing mining environmental authorisation of July 2012. As part of their operations, WCR intend to mine deposits that are located on land as well as specific deposits that extend seaward from the land, potentially for several hundred metres. WCR has existing converted mining rights and prospecting rights over the area, including a number of properties situated approximately 50 kilometres west of Kamieskroon and extending north and south of Hondeklip Bay on the West Coast of the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. The mining rights comprise of the existing mining rights, covering the Koingnaas Complex (KNC) and Samsons Bak Complex (SBC), which were converted in July 2012 (under File No. SNC 522 MRC and SNC 525 MRC), respectively, and several farms resorting under the existing Namaqualand Prospecting Right (NPR) (File No. SNC 672 PRC). The Koingnaas mining area, has been extensively mined over the last 60 years. It comprises the southern Michell’s Bay area and the northern Koingnaas area. Although extensively mined in the past, the Koingnaasarea is still prospective on a local scale and is typified by high diamond densities. Surf-zone mining has been minimal in the past and that resource remains virtually untouched. Standard open cast alluvial mining methods will be applied to land mining, initially. A vast database of historic exploration information was built up over more than 50 years at the former De Beers Namaqualand Mines (NM) and includes comprehensive geophysical surveys, percussion and large diameter sample drilling as well as pitting and trench bulk sampling. Different prospecting techniques utilized at the Koingnaas area over time are briefly summarised below