Dr John Teeling, chairman of African Gold, is seeking to raise £350,000 sterling (€548,000) to invest in two diamond exploration companies, which will operate as African Diamonds.
Kukama Exploration and Grampian Resources hold exploration licences for several kimberlite fields in Botswana, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Dr Teeling said the deal to buy the two companies "just fell on top of us, as the best deals often do".
Botswana has the world's richest diamond deposits, accounting for 27 per cent of the world total. Kukama holds four licences for the Orapa kimberlite field, which is currently being widely explored by De Beers, the South African diamond mining group.
Grampian Resources holds licences for exploration in Guinea and Sierra Leone. After years of civil war, a peace accord was signed in Sierra Leone in January and a new president was elected just last April. Political stability in the country is something yet to be proven.
"That's part of the risk," Dr Teeling said yesterday. African Diamonds intends investing £500,000 in Botswana and £150,000 in each of its other projects. African Diamonds held a pre-AIM flotation meeting yesterday to raise £350,000 on shares at five pence. Around 50 prospective investors attended the meeting in Dublin yesterday.
The company expects to float on the AIM on November 1st. "We hope to have some exploration results before then, which will help with the flotation." said Dr Teeling.
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