SIMON RIEKERT JOINS WEST AFRICAN DIAMONDS AS CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Simon Riekert has been appointed as Chief Operating Officer of West African Diamonds, the diamond explorer and developer listed on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market. Riekert, who will be based in Koidu, Sierra Leone, will be responsible for bringing into production WAD’s late stage diamond projects in Guinea and Sierra Leone. His initial priorities are to oversee the construction and operation of the Plant 11 diamond/gold mining project in Koidu (Q3 2007), as well as bring into production WAD’s extensive portfolio of alluvial diamond resources through 2007. Simon will also be working closely with the board and management of WAD to expand the company’s diamond and gold production asset portfolio. Riekert is a qualified metallurgist and manager with over 20 years diamond mining experience across advanced exploration, bulk sampling, trial and full-scale mining. Riekert is well versed in directing feasibility studies, operations management and project start-up’s in remote locations. Riekert has worked in many of Africa’s major diamond producing countries: South Africa, Angola, DRC and Sierra Leone. He spent six years in technical management at De Beers’ South African flagship Venetia mine. His most recent assignment was the establishment of two alluvial diamond and gold operations in Sierra Leone. “We are moving rapidly toward diamond and gold production in Sierra Leone. This is a very strong appointment which completes the management team to take our projects to production. We have good local experienced managers who will benefit from the skills and experience which Simon brings with him. His hands on experience in West African will be used to bring our Plant 11 diamond/gold mine on stream in 2007. We hope that 2007 will prove the demerger strategy, by unlocking the value of and further expanding our West African portfolio. West African Diamonds is designed to be a production, development and exploration diamond and gold mining operation. Simon’s task will be to turn this strategy into a reality on the ground,” says John Teeling.