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Firestone Diamonds (FDI:AIM) 161.5p

Bulk sampling begins this month at the Tsabong project in Botswana to evaluate macro-diamonds, namely stones that are over 0.5 millimetres in size. Results should be out in May as part of a wider sampling programme. Falconbridge (now owned by Xstrata (XTA)) only found low grades when it looked at Tsabong in the 1970s. Firestone acquired the project in 2006 and has since discovered much higher grades from deeper drilling. The MK1 section at Tsabong will cost $1.1 billion to develop. Firestone will need to raise up to £10 million this year to advance the project with the intention of having an inferred resource by late 2008. If good-quality macrodiamonds are found, Tsabong will certainly attract interest from major diamond producers, which could be the ones eventually to take it into production, forecast for 2014.