Location
The 100%-owned Catalão project is located in the state of Goiás, approximately 280km south of Brazil’s capital city, Brasilia. The Catalão 1 kimberlite cluster covers a surface area of 0.75 hectares and is comprised of three pipe-like deposits named Catalão 1A, 1B and 1C. These pipe-like deposits are approximately 0.30, 0.25 and 0.20 hectares respectively

Kimberlites
The kimberlite cluster was discovered in the 1970s by a subsidiary of De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited. Rio Tinto acquired an exploration license covering an area surrounding the kimberlite in 1998 and completed a detailed exploration program over the following two years which included airborne and ground geophysical surveys, core drilling and mini-bulk sampling. Rio Tinto’s mini-bulk sampling program focused on a surface exposure of the Catalão 1A pipe, where three mini-bulk samples with a total weight of approximately 3.6 (dry) tonnes resulted in the recovery of 52 diamonds with a total weight of 0.85 carats.

The 5,100 (dry) kilograms of drillcore sample from Catalão 1A was processed using the caustic fusion process at Rio Tinto’s facility in Brazil. The 3.6 tonne mini-bulk sample from Catalão 1A was initially treated at Rio Tinto’s facility in Brazil by scrubbing and screening to liberate the diamonds and reduce the volume of the sample. Following attrition, the >0.500 mm fraction was passed through a bromoform solution to produce a heavy mineral concentrate containing diamonds, which were picked under the microscope.

Rio Tinto also completed a drilling program comprising 16 core holes totalling 1,050 metres to define the limits of the Catalão 1A, 1B and 1C bodies to a maximum depth of 201 metres. A total of 5.14 (dry) tonnes of kimberlite was processed for total diamond recovery by caustic fusion resulting in the recovery of 145 diamonds with a total weight of 0.51 carats.

Exploration
Vaaldiam plans to pursue an aggressive evaluation program which includes definition drilling to further define the known kimberlites on the Property and the completion of an additional bulk sampling program recovering approximately 150 tonnes of kimberlite from the Catalão diamond bearing kimberlites.