KIMBERLEY Diamond Company has announced continued strong output at its Ellendale 9 East Plant following an upgrade in mid-September 2005. Production at the plant is now running at about, or better than, 300 tonnes per hour. After poor production rates for most of the September quarter (until the upgrade was completed on September 11), the company achieved record production in October 2005, resulting in the recovery of 22,844 carats from a total of 235,130t processed at an average grade of 9.85 carats per 100t. The East Plant processed 185,318t at an average throughput rate of 308t/hour for the month of October, while the West Plant processed 49,812t. Maintenance of these rates on an annualised basis would result in combined throughput rates of more than 2.8 million tonnes a year. The ore processed was derived from blending the lower valued ore blocks from Ellendale Pipe 4 ($US121/carat), Ellendale 9 West lobe ($US187/carat) and from the recently discovered Ellendale 9 North Alluvials ($US195/carat) on behalf of Kimberley’s subsidiary company, Blina Diamonds NL. The company will continue to mine, stockpile and treat similar valued material predominantly until the end of March 2006 before moving on to the high value ($US361/carat) material from the eastern area of Pipe 9 when mining recommences after the northern monsoon season.