The Company’s diamond initiative will focus on the Bhandara Diamond Project which is made up of seven granted reconnaissance permits in Orissa, as well as three reconnaissance permit applications in Chhattisharh.

The strategic interest in diamonds is underpinned by the fact that India has the world’s biggest diamond processing industry and major diamond companies including De Beers, the world's biggest diamond miner are active in the country and has an active exploration program underway on ground adjacent to one of India Resources’ tenements.

The company’s diamond exploration activities are focused on three project areas, Bhandara, Dhawar and Bundelkhand, located in three established diamond-bearing kimberlitic fields in peninsular India.

Bhandara Diamond Project
The Project includes seven granted Reconnaissance Permits covering an area of 8,000 sq km in Western Orissa. An additional contiguous 6,000 sq km covered by three Reconnaissance Permit applications in neighbouring Chhattisgarh State completes the project area of 14,100 km sq in total. The Project straddles the border between Chhattisgarh and Orissa and is located in the recognised Mainpur-Raipur Kimberlite Field. The area lies on the boundary of the Bhandara Archaean craton with the Proterozoic Eastern Ghats Mobile Belt and several kimberlite bodies have been recorded in close proximity.

Exploration focus will consist initially of stream sediment sampling with microprobe analysis to identify kimberlitic indicator minerals.

Dhawar Project
The Dharwar Project comprises five prospecting licence applications totalling 24.9 km square and target geophysical and indicator mineral anomalies within the Chigicherla kimberlite cluster south of Wajrakarur in Andhra Pradesh. Wajrakarur has a long history of diamond mining.

The Wajrakarur kimberlite field comprises three discrete clusters of 21 kimberlites over a 7,200 km square area of granite-greenstone terrain, part of the Dharwar Craton. To its east lies the Cuddapah Basin, repository for the Neoproterozoic Banaganapalle Conglomerate, a popular source of alluvial diamonds for early miners over its length of 250km. 

Both the structural framework and kimberlite distribution at Chigicherla imply opportunity for new kimberlite discoveries and given the diamond content and size of know occurrences, justify a systematic, skilled exploration program to test licence areas when granted and the likelihood of extensions to the Chigicherla kimberlite cluster.

Bundelkhand Project
The two adjoining reconnaissance permit applications, 1,880 km square in area, are situated on the eastern portion of the Bundelkhand Craton in Madhya Pradesh within 70km of the diamond-bearing kimberlites at Panna and Bunder.

Proposed Exploration Program

IRL will acquire the diamond projects in mid to late 2007 at which time the initial exploration focus will be directed at the current seven reconnaissance permits in Orissa.

Exploration methods employed to locate and rate the diamond potential of any kimberlite present will include drainage and loam sampling for indicator mineral recovery, structural and photo targeting of specific anaomalies, geological mapping, ground geophysical surveys and first pass probe drilling.

IRL has put forward a budget of $1.2 million for diamonds exploration over two years. Funding will identify kimberlites present, rank their diamond prospectivity and for those with economic potential, outline their size, geology and possible diamond content.