Crown Vote Yes to Merger

Petra Diamonds Ld
25 May 2005



                             Petra Diamonds Limited


                     Proposed Merger with Crown Diamonds NL



Petra Diamonds Limited (LSE: PDL), the AIM-quoted diamond mining group, wishes
to bring to the attention of its shareholders an ASX announcement that was made
today by Crown Diamonds NL ('Crown') (ASX: CRD). The text of the Crown
announcement is reproduced below.


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                      Crown Diamonds NL (ACN: 050 541332)

                    ASX Announcement - released 25 May 2005

                     CROWN DIAMONDS SHAREHOLDERS VOTE 'YES'

                       TO MERGER WITH LONDON-LISTED PETRA


Shareholders in listed Australian diamond producer, Crown Diamonds NL (ASX code:
'CRD') have today overwhelmingly voted 'yes' to the merger with London-quoted
Petra Diamonds Limited (LSE code: 'PDL').

The vote will now be put to a meeting in London of Petra shareholders at 10am
London time today (7.00 pm EST Australia tonight). If the merger plan is also
adopted by the Petra meeting, a new mid-tier diamond explorer and producer will
be created.

'The endorsement by Crown shareholders at today's Perth meeting is a historic
vote of support for an opportunity to participate in the substantial upside in
the global diamond market,' Crown's Chief Executive Officer, Mr Johan Dippenaar,
said today.

Mr Dippenaar is scheduled to take over as CEO and Executive Director of the
enlarged group, to be called Petra Diamonds, and which will own producing
diamond mines in South Africa, major exploration rights in Angola through a BHP
Billiton joint venture and participate in a joint venture with Mano River
Resources in Sierra Leone.

'Final approval will see Crown move from being a sole diamond producer with few
exploration opportunities to being part of a larger company with the greater
financial and exploration muscle needed to precipitate share value and asset
growth and attract new projects,' Mr Dippenaar said.

'There will be an opportunity to continue to invest in Petra as the stock will
be listed on both the Australian Stock Exchange (subject to final approval) and
London's Alternative Investment Market. This will help deliver greater trading
fluidity and value for investments held by our current Crown shareholders.'

Dual listing approval will crystallise a UK-led A$40 million cash injection into
the enlarged Petra Diamonds  Completion of the capital raising, undertaken by
Petra's broker, Williams de Broe Plc, was subject to the merger going ahead,
with the funds being available to Petra around 17 June, 2005.

Conditional on tonight's voting in London, the merger will see Petra acquire the
entire 302 million ordinary share capital of Crown under an all-share Scheme of
Arrangement with each Crown shareholder receiving one Petra share for every
eight Crown shares.

Holders of Convertible Loan Notes in Crown, representing about A$3 million of
ASX-listed notes or approximately 17 million Crown shares if converted, also
voted today to support the merger.

The Schemes of Arrangements voted on in Perth today are subject to approval by
the Supreme Court of Western Australia.  The court date to consider such
approval is set for 31 May 2005.



By Order of the Board


Crown Diamonds NL



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For further information, please contact:


                            David Abery                                 Cathy Malins / Annabel Leather
                            Petra Diamonds, South African office        Parkgreen Communications, London
                            Tel: [phone]                        Tel: [phone]

                            Frank H. Moxon
                            Williams de Broe Plc, London                Karl Paganin / Michael Soucik
                            Tel: [phone]                       Euroz Securities, Perth
                                                                        Tel: [phone]



                            In South Africa:
                                                                        In Australia:
                            Johan Dippenaar

ACN: 050 541 332
                            CEO and Director                            John Baillie
                            Crown Diamonds NL                           Company Secretary and Director
                            Tel: [phone]                        Crown Diamonds NL

                                                                        Tele: [phone]
                                                                        Fax:  [phone]

                                                                        Kevin Skinner
                                                                        Field Public Relations
                                                                        Tel: [phone]
                                                                        Mobile: [phone]





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