De Beers choose bidders for S.A. Cullinan diamond mine

De Beers has selected bidders for the loss-making Cullinan diamond mine in South Africa.

JOHANNESBURG - 

The world's biggest diamond producer, De Beers, has chosen bidders interested in buying its loss-making Cullinan mine in South Africa, it said on Friday.

The firm said in February it planned to sell the Cullinan and Kimberley underground mines and other dormant diamond resources in and around Kimberley.

The bidders would now begin a due dilligence process, receiving information and being allowed visits and inspections of the mine, a statement said.

Spokeswoman Nicola Wilson for the group's South African unit, De Beers Consolidated Mines (DBCM), declined to identify the bidders.

Website Miningmx said earlier this week that mining group Rio Tinto and London-listed Petra Diamonds had qualified as bidders, citing market sources.

"Following the conclusion of the due diligence process, invited bidders will be required to submit binding offers for Cullinan Diamond Mine following which DBCM will enter into negotiations with one or more of the invited bidders," the De Beers statement said.

The sale is due to be completed in late 2007 or early 2008, Wilson said.

De Beers previously said Cullinan -- made famous as the source of the largest gem diamond ever found -- would be sold as a going concern, limiting the need for any change in the number of employees working at the mine.

De Beers, which is 45 percent owned by Anglo American Plc, produces and markets about 40 percent of the world's supply of rough diamonds.

De Beers had said Standard Bank would advise on the disposals.

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