Diamond Fields International Ltd. (DFI:TSX) has announced that the marine research vessel RV POSEIDON is on the Company's Atlantis II joint venture concession conducting a walk-away, sub-bottom profiling survey using the state-of-the-art Abyss 6000 unmanned autonomous vehicle.
The survey is being conducted pursuant to a collaborative agreement between DFI and Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences at the Christian-Albrechts Universitat zu Kiel ("IFM-GEOMAR"). Work will also include collating a high precision bathymetric survey over the structure as part of the marine research project "Jeddah Transect" conducted by IFM-GEOMAR and King Abdulaziz University of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The survey has already for the first time, using specially adapted cameras operating within the brine pool, managed to obtain detailed photographs and video of the Atlantis II Deeps surface. During the two months, marine scientists from Saudi Arabia and Kiel will perform joint biological, geological and geophysical studies on Atlantis II and other parts of the Red Sea in three legs from an area off the coast up to the trench axis of the Red Sea at two kilometers depth. The Jeddah Transect Project includes a broad range of scientific activity, including the investigation of the Atlantis II Deeps, which is known to contain significant precious and base metal mineralization. The DFI/Manafa joint venture was granted the world's first deep water marine mining license by the Red Sea Commission in May 2010.
The Company expects to complete a National Instrument 43-101 compliant resource statement for the Atlantis II deposit before the end of March. The work is being independently undertaken by A.C.A. Howe based a total of 565 cores. The cores reflect only the average top 8.5 metres of the deposit (the average depth of penetration), which is known to be open at depth.
"The information gained from the RV POSEIDON's survey will add to the Company's extensive data base on the Atlantis II deposit and help us plan follow-up surveys, provisionally scheduled for later this year, and develop the resource," said Ian Ransome, DFI's CEO. Survey results are expected by Q2 2011.
Source: Diamond Fields International Ltd.