I received a confirmation on Nov 16th from Bernard Tourillon. I have copy/paste a pertinent section of the email per, quote:
"calibration and crew training are going well and that it is near completion and that we will soon be in a position to establish the schedule of our program. The vessel should be presented and will be officially launch to the press and political officials in Walvis Bay on November 25th."
For anyone interested in the whereabouts of "The Explorer" but also referred to as "M/V Explorer", an entry in the PortLog of Luderitz showed The Explorer docking in port on 16/10/09 per:
http://www.namport.com/content/portlog.php?m=5&sm=78&p_id=Luderitz
with following details:
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16/10/09
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11:00
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M/V EXPLORER
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4677
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105M
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MINING VESSEL
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LBS + F
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Further, also on Nov 16th, I received confirmation via email replying to my inquiry, from a Widux Kachenje Mutwa of the Port Authority of Luderitz where he informed me that, quote:
The M/V Explorer (a mining vessel) is alongside in the port of Luderitz today (physically alongside) as at 17h30 local time when I left the port. From what I know the vessel has been moving to/from between port and anchorage for the past two months to date.
Note: I have yet to discover the Port's authority method on how they record when a ship leaves the port. One would think that data to be there somewhere.
What all the above (might?) mean is that the work IMDH have been undertaking over the last year (year & half?) to retro-fit, test, train crew (2 X 53) & calibrate/adjust such things as GPS, drill head, sorting station etc, is about to be put into play. We know from previous exploration/sampling work that AFA has conducted on Block J, that there are diamonds there. What has yet to be proven is how many carats exist.
I, for one, do put value into the sharing of info that Bernard has exchanged. After all, thru his AFA share holding, Bernard etc have, as the saying goes, "put his money where his mouth is".
Not much longer to wait for this to come to a resolution. But each must do his/her own DD. GLTA
