Diamond company DiamondCorp says it will attempt to raise $1.6 million in order to further develop a mine in South Africa, Mining Weekly reported. DiamondCorp will put 28.5 million shares up for sale to raise funds for operations at the Lace mine, charging $0.056 per share.



DiamondCorp needs additional funders to come up with $864 million to supplement the $1.9 billion that the Industrial Development Corporation will provide it with, to bring it up to $2.77 billion, the cost of the entire development. IDC's funds are contingent on DiamondCorp securing the extra millions.



The Lace mine is expected to produce 1.2 million metric tons of ore a year, producing about approximately 380,000 carats annually in its first years of operation, and later averaging about 260,000 carats per annum for its expected lifetime of 26 years, according to Mining Weekly.

DiamondCorp chief executive officer Paul Loudon noted with pleasure the support of Henderson Global Investors and Darwin Strategic, which permits the firm to meet IDC's conditions.