South Africa-based Diamond Fields International reported continuing reconnaissance and development success on its Liberian joint-venture properties, in a statement on Thursday.

Nine Liberian kimberlite targets had been generated, with 75% of the reconnaissance sampling completed, the statement said.

Two targets were pipelike bodies and three were inferred dyke trends more than 500 m long.

Ground magnetic anomalies were present, which coincided with interpreted kimberlite pipes and dykes on the three targets that had been surveyed.

Diamond Fields was investigating the possibility of mobilising a diamond recovery plant in Liberia to facilitate bulk samplings of kimberlite for grade.

Sampling grids, 1 000 m long and 500 m wide, over high-grade gold anomalies had been completed on both the Grand Cape and Grand Gedeh properties, and results were expected by the end of the month.

The company had identified nine areas requiring further development work, of which it had advanced to mapping, grid sampling and pitting on five areas, with ground geophysics completed on three.

Magnetic response indicative of kimberlite was present on all three of these areas, confirming the pipelike bodies on grid four, and a dyke trend in excess of 500 m long on grid three.

Macrodiamonds, between 0,05 ct and 0,22 ct, had been recovered during grid sampling and pitting of a fourth three-kilometre dyke target on grid five.

The statement also said that the Liberian Department of Minerals and Energy was making good progress with development of infrastructure to support registration of diamond output under the Kimberly process. It was expected that it would achieve certification under the process by the fourth quarter of 2006.