DENVER, July 16, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Pinnacle Resources, Inc. (OTCBB:PNRR) announced today that its 50% subsidiary, Diamonaire Pty Ltd of South Africa, was granted a 1,700 meter allocation of beach and surf zones by diamond concession holder TransHex Operations Pty Limited. The exclusive allocation is located on the west coast of South Africa and reserves the northern half of the Geelwal Beach for five years. All gravels unearthed from the concession will be processed by TransHex at their De Punt diamond separation plant located about twelve kilometers away. Gross diamond sales are split 35% to TransHex, 65% to Diamonaire.
Diamonaire was formed for the purpose of developing the AquaWalker(TM) technology. The AquaWalker(TM) is a remote controlled walking platform designed to walk into the ocean carrying equipment necessary to extract diamoniferous gravels from the ocean floor. The AquaWalker(TM) finished its sea trials last month and was being retrofitted to accommodate beach conditions and shallow water environments having sand overburdens over one to six meters.
In order to obtain the 1.7-kilometer allocation, Diamonaire agreed to measure sand thickness and logging of the beach area contained in the allocation. Recently, three separate trials were conducted on this allocation with the combined results yielding 21.4 cubic meters of gravels having 862 diamonds for a total of 345 carats. The allocation to the south of Diamonaire recently yielded 3200 carats valued at $1.5 million.
Chris Wilson, Diamonaire's Managing Partner, indicated that "the AquaWalker(TM) will be retro-fitted with a caisson that will be directly underneath the platform. This innovation will be jettisoned down to prevent caving of sand into the hole created inside the caisson by the sand pump thus allowing the mining head access to the gravel. We will start beach operations and then move into the water as we gain confidence working inside of the caisson. It will take a month to mobilize to the new allocation."
Additional information on Pinnacle Resources, Inc. is available on the company's website at http://www.pnrr.net.
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include expressions of beliefs, expectations, hopes, or intentions regarding the future, which may or not come to pass. It is important to note that actual results may differ from those expressed in such a forward-looking statements. Although Pinnacle believes its properties have potential, they are in early stages of exploration or development. There can be no assurance that if identified, any resource might be economically extracted. If additional projects are acquired, there can be no assurance of any economic benefit of cash flow to the company.