RVD River Diamonds

    RNS Number : 7783U
  River Diamonds PLC
  19 May 2008
   

    19 May 2008                                                                                                                          
AIM: RVD

    River Diamonds PLC
    ('the Company' or 'River Diamonds')

    First Gold pour at Fiji Gold Mine after recommissioning


    River Diamonds is pleased to announce that its 100%-owned Vatukoula Gold Mine ("the Mine" or "Vatukoula") in Fiji has today had its
first operational gold pour of 641 ounces since the Mine was placed on care and maintenance in December 2006.

    The gold poured was from concentrates from the recommissioning of the mill's floatation, roaster and calcine circuits, which were
brought on line on 8 May 2008.

    This pour, which totalled 779.2 ounces of gold ore (comprising 641 ounces fine gold and 121 ounces of fine silver), is in-line with
production targets and represents the final step in the recommissioning of operations at the Mine.

    Gold that is currently being recovered through the mill's carbon-in-leaching circuit and accumulated on carbon will be added to the gold
pours over the coming weeks.

    Operations within the Mine, whilst still experiencing some inevitable "teething issues", have now reached a steady-state condition. Ore
from both the underground and open pit operations is now being supplied to the mill on a daily basis. Alongside the commencement of
production at Vatukoula, the Company has also recruited an experienced operational management team to complement the existing management in
Fiji.

    The JORC-compliant gold resources at the Mine total 16.84 million tonnes at an average grade of 9.49 grams of gold per tonne or 5.15
million ounces of gold. Currently, the Mine employs approximately 700 personnel. 

    David Lenigas, River Diamond's Executive Director commented:

    "This pour of 641 ounces of fine gold is the culmination of a lot of dedicated work by the entire River Diamonds team in recommissioning
the Mine in a relatively short period of time and bedding down the entire process into steady state operations. I am delighted with this
achievement and would like to thank all involved.

    River Diamonds now looks forward to continuous gold operations from the Mine in what can reasonably be described as a very positive gold
market. The Mine is an entirely unhedged operation.

    The name of the Fijian operating company will be changed from Westech Gold to Vatukoula Gold Mines Limited over the coming weeks to more
adequately reflect the local significance of this project to the Fijian economy."


    Enquiries

 River Diamonds: 
 David Lenigas                     + 44 20 7016 5100
 Colin Orr Ewing                   + 44 20 7352 4117
 John Ian Stalker                  + 27 11 269 4900
 Neil Herbert                      + 27 11 269 4900

 W.H. Ireland Limited
 David Porter                      + 44 20 7220 1666
 James Joyce

 Hichens, Harrison & Co pl
 Dave Paxton                       + 44 20 7382 7785

 Parkgreen Communications
 Louise Goodeve / Justine Howarth  + 44 20 7851 7480



    Qualified Person

    Kiran Morzaria B.Eng (ACSM), MBA, has reviewed and approved the information contained in this announcement. Kiran holds a Bachelor of
Engineering (Industrial Geology) from the Camborne School of Mines and an MBA (Finance) from CASS Business School. Kiran is the Finance
Director of River Diamonds. He is a fellow of the Geological Society.

This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
 
  END 
 
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