Petra Diamonds, the international diamond mining group, has received the consent of the South African government for the cession and transfer of the Cullinan new order mining right to Cullinan Diamond Mine (Pty) Limited from De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited, De Beers said in a statement.

CDM is wholly owned by the members of the Petra Diamonds Cullinan Consortium, and represents the interests of PDCC in Cullinan.

The timetable for completion of the Cullinan acquisition remains on track for July 2008, when Petra will take over the operation of the mine from De Beers.

In November 2007, PDCC entered into an agreement with De Beers to acquire Cullinan. A condition of the acquisition was that Ministerial consent under Section 11 of The Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act for the cession of the Cullinan new order mining right be granted. The completion of the acquisition is now conditional upon the registration in the Mineral and Petroleum Titles Registration Office of the transfer by De Beers of the Cullinan new order mining right into the name of CDM.

When this condition has been met and therefore the acquisition completed, Petra will publish a Cullinan resource statement in accordance with the AIM Guidance for Mining Companies.

JCK