Shefa Yamim (LON:SEFA), the precious stone exploration and prospecting pursing a mine-market strategy in Northern Israel has announced two of its permits have been renewed by the Ministry of Energy, Natural Resources Administration.
The permits cover a total of 44,045 hectares and are valid for a year for the prospecting of diamonds, gold, gems and other precious stones.
Avi Taub, CEO of Shefa Yamim, said:
“The renewal of these two permits is another step for the Company moving to the advanced stages of exploring the permitted areas, including the magmatic bodies on Mount Carmel and Ramot Menashe, which are the primary sources of the unique and rare gemstones discovered by Shefa Yamim at the Kishon Mid Reach project. The Company continues to progress towards trial mining in Zone 1 of the Kishon Mid Reach.”
Shefa Yamim recently announced they had discovered a new mineral in their Carmel Sapphire™ and it had been officially recognised by the International Mineralogical Association.
Shefa Yamim’s operations are prospecting for a wide range of stones including diamonds, sapphires, rubies, garnets, spinel and their Carmel Sapphire™.
The new permit designated 837A12 for Mount Carmel covers an area of 32,755 hectares and another site 899A7 for the Ramot Menashe area is 11,290 hectares.
The permits bring the number of permits attached to Shefa Yamim to a total of four.
The permits are located in Northern Israel focussed on volcanic geological areas in the the Zevulun and Yizre’el valleys, Mount Carmel and the Kishon River.
Shefa Yamim are pursuing a mine-to-market strategy similar to that of De Beers that would see Shefa Yamim produce jewellery for the end user as opposed to selling their stones to intermediaries such as brokers.
Shefa Yamim are operating in gemstone market that is expecting to grow to be worth $10 billion in the next ten years, according to UN Trade data.