Rockwell welcomes African Renaissance as its BEE partner for its Middle Orange operations

VANCOUVER, Feb. 3, 2014 /CNW/ - Rockwell Diamonds Inc. ("Rockwell" or the "Company") (TSX: RDI; JSE: RDI) announced that it had reached agreement with African Renaissance Holdings Limited ("ARH") as its new black institutional investor who will acquire a 30% equity stake in the Company's Middle Orange operations[1], as its black economic empowerment ("BEE") partner as required by South African Law.

Subsequent to the announcement during early December 2013, ARH has fulfilled most of the conditions precedent and has already supported the Company in relevant matters.

ARH was established early in 1994 to champion active participation and ownership by black South Africans in strategic economic sectors. Following a restructuring of its shareholder constellation, ARH currently chaired by Bobby Makwetla, will pursue its successful investment track record in both listed and unlisted entities in sectors including telecommunications, mining, diamonds and related services.

 "Following an exhaustive process to identify a new partner who shared our approach and vision and wanted to work with us to deliver on our objectives, we identified ARH who has an established track record in value creating BEE transactions. We are excited about this new partnership and confident that together this transaction will add significant value to our business going forward," said James Campbell, CEO, Rockwell. "Rockwell has always been committed to participating in the economic transformation in South Africa. We consider the finalisation of this strategic partnership as an important milestone in our voyage towards building a leading value-focused African diamond business with a strong social license to operate in partnership with all our stakeholders. Further contributing to this was our recent achievement of 1,000,000 hours of lost time injury free operations across the whole group in mid January. This is the first time that we have achieved this landmark at a company-wide level since mid 2012, demonstrating the strength of our safety practices."

About Rockwell Diamonds:

Rockwell is engaged in the business of operating and developing alluvial diamond deposits, with a goal to become a mid-tier diamond production company. The Company has two operational mines, which it is progressively optimising, as well as a third mine which will come into production in the first quarter of 2014. Rockwell also has two development projects and a pipeline of earlier stage properties with future development potential. The operations are based on high throughput processing capability and Saxendrift, the flagship mine has among the lowest unit costs in the industry, as a result of implementing fit for purpose technologies.

The Company is known for producing large, high quality gem stone diamonds comprising a major portion of its diamond recoveries and has a beneficiation joint venture that enables it to participate in the profits on the sale of the polished diamonds.

Rockwell also evaluates merger and acquisition opportunities which have the potential to expand its mineral resources and production profile and would provide accretive value to the Company.

No regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained in this news release.

Forward Looking Statements

Except for statements of historical fact, this news release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. Forward-looking information is frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements.

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include uncertainties and costs related to exploration and development activities, such as those related to determining whether mineral resources exist on a property; uncertainties related to expected production rates, timing of production and cash and total costs of production and milling; uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary licenses, permits, electricity, surface rights and title for development projects; operating and technical difficulties in connection with mining development activities; uncertainties related to the accuracy of our mineral resource estimates and our estimates of future production and future cash and total costs of production and diminishing quantities or grades of mineral resources; uncertainties related to unexpected judicial or regulatory procedures or changes in, and the effects of, the laws, regulations and government policies affecting our mining operations; changes in general economic conditions, the financial markets and the demand and market price for mineral commodities such and diesel fuel, steel, concrete, electricity, and other forms of energy, mining equipment, and fluctuations in exchange rates, particularly with respect to the value of the US dollar, Canadian dollar and South African Rand; changes in accounting policies and methods that we use to report our financial condition, including uncertainties associated with critical accounting assumptions and estimates; environmental issues and liabilities associated with mining and processing; geopolitical uncertainty and political and economic instability in countries in which we operate; and labour strikes, work stoppages, or other interruptions to, or difficulties in, the employment of labour in markets in which we operate our mines, or environmental hazards, industrial accidents or other events or occurrences, including third party interference that interrupt operation of our mines or development projects.

For further information on Rockwell, Investors should review Rockwell's home jurisdiction filings that are available at www.sedar.com.

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¹Northern Cape operations comprise the Saxendrift, Saxendrift Hill Complex, Saxendrift Extension and Niewejaarskraal mines as well as the Wouterspan project, among others.

SOURCE Rockwell Diamonds Inc.