Mano River Resources reports encouraging results from Tongo project

Mano River Resources Inc. ("Mano" or "the Company"), the TSX-V and AIM-listed exploration and development company focussed on West Africa is pleased to announce encouraging initial diamond recoveries from the Tongo kimberlite project in eastern Sierra Leone. The Tongo project is a Joint Venture between Mano's 68.5% owned subsidiary company, Stellar Diamonds Limited ("Stellar") and BHP Billiton. BHP Billiton can earn up to a 51% interest in the Tongo project under the current spending plan of $3.4million, with a further option to earn up to 70%.Highlights of the initial recoveries are:. 1,894 diamonds, totalling 2.05 carats, recovered from six 200 kg (dry weight) samples, including. 49 diamonds over 0.85mm recovered, totalling 1.43 carats. 72 diamonds, totalling 2.85 carats, recovered from 23 surface grab samplesStellar's CEO, Karl Smithson, commented:"We are extremely pleased with these results and consider the significant number of diamonds recovered to be a promising indicator of potential grade. Additionally, the presence of diamonds in the plus 0.85mm size fraction from these small samples is particularly encouraging. With our partners, BHP Billiton, we are now undertaking a 1,200m drilling programme aimed at locating any potential kimberlite pipes or blows associated with the dykes and look forward to providing an update in due course."Four kimberlite dykes have been mapped and trenched at various points along strike by Stellar on the 33km2 Tongo project, which is a retained area from the original 9,700km2 Reconnaissance Exclusive Prospecting Licence. The dykes in the licence area currently range in strike length from 0.5km to 2km and range in width from a few centimetres up to 1m. Tongo is located 35km south of the Kono Joint Venture between Stellar and Petra Diamonds where underground test diamond mining is underway.Six 200kg (dry weight) samples were collected from the Tongo trenches and consigned to the SGS Lakefield Research Africa laboratory ("SGS") (non ISO compliant) in Johannesburg, South Africa for total diamond liberation by caustic dissolution.Some 1,894 diamonds weighing a total of 2.05 carats were recovered. The full results are shown in Table 1. All six samples yielded a significant number of diamonds, many in excess of 0.85mm (i.e. 'DTC sieve size 1'). The highest number of diamonds recovered from a single sample was 756 diamonds (totalling 0.317-carats) from Dyke 3 (sample JV-2527). However, the most carats from a single sample (0.534-carats) were recovered from Dyke 1 (sample JV-2525). The largest diamond recovered was a white octahedral stone weighing 0.31-carats (Dyke 1 sample JV-2525). The SGS laboratory described the majority of the diamonds as white, transparent or translucent, dodecahedrons, octahedrons or fragments. A number of these diamonds show perfect or near perfect preservation and exhibit octahedral form.In addition to the six samples submitted for caustic dissolution, Stellar also collected 23 surface grab samples from the four dykes. These samples ranged in wet weight from 20 kg to 1,200 kg, and were processed in-field by washing and manual concentrating to produce a greater than 0.3 mm mesh sized concentrate. Diamonds were recovered from the concentrates using a binocular microscope in the kimberlite indicator mineral laboratory established by Stellar in Monrovia, Liberia. Some 72 diamonds, weighing 2.85-carats, were recovered from 22 of the 23 samples collected and processed. Mano's Qualified Person responsible for reviewing the content of this release is Karl Smithson, Executive Director and CEO of Stellar Diamonds Limited. Mr. Smithson holds BSc in Geology from Kingston University in the UK, a MBA from the Graduate School of Business, Cape Town and is a member of the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (as Professional Geologist).About the laboratory procedureAt the SGS laboratory in Johannesburg, South Africa, the samples were dried and 200kg (dry weight) of each sample was subjected to total diamond liberation through caustic dissolution (4kg sample aliquots boiled at 550-deg Celsius in caustic soda for 14 hours). The fusion residues were then passed through a 90 micron sieve and the +90 micron fractions were then dried and passed to the MSA Geoservices laboratory for diamond picking. Diamonds that reported to the +0.075mm square mesh sieve size were recovered, measured (X,Y,Z axes), described and weighed. Diamonds reporting to the +0.212mm sieve size were weighed individually, whereas diamonds reporting to the -0.212mm sieve size were weighed together in their respective sieve class size.