Petra Granted Ministerial Consent for Cullinan Acquisition

Petra Diamonds has announced that it has received ministerial consent for the cession and transfer of the Cullinan new order mining right to Cullinan Diamond Mine Limited – wholly owned by the members of the Petra Diamonds Cullinan Consortium (PDCC) – from De Beers Consolidated Mines.

The final stages of the Cullinan acquisition are expected to be completed in July 2008, when Petra, as a member of the Consortium, will take over the operation of the mine from De Beers.

In November 2007, PDCC entered into an agreement with De Beers to acquire the South African mine.

One condition of the acquisition was the granting of Ministerial consent under Section 11 of The Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act for the cession of the Cullinan new order mining right. Now that this has been fulfilled, the completion of the acquisition is dependent upon the registration in the Mineral and Petroleum Titles Registration Office of the transfer by De Beers of the Cullinan new order mining right in the name of CDM.

Petra notes that when this condition has been met and therefore the acquisition completed, it will publish a Cullinan resource statement in accordance with the AIM Guidance for Mining Companies.