Placing

Petra Diamonds Ld
05 March 2004


Petra Diamonds Limited

Placing of 16 million ordinary shares to raise £8 million

Petra Diamonds Limited ('Petra' or 'the Company'), the AIM quoted diamond mining
group, today announces that 16,000,000 new ordinary shares of 10p each in the
capital of the Company ('the Placing Shares') have been placed with
institutional and other investors by Williams de Broe Plc at a price of 50 pence
per share. Net proceeds of the placing will be approximately £7.5 million and
will be used primarily to fund further exploration of Petra's Alto Cuilo diamond
project in north eastern Angola.

The Placing Shares, which will rank pari passu with the Company's existing
ordinary shares, will represent 23.6 per cent. of the Company's enlarged
ordinary issued share capital immediately following the placing. Application has
been made for the Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on the AIM market of
London Stock Exchange plc ('Admission'). The placing is conditional on
Admission, which is expected to become effective and dealings in the Placing
Shares to commence at 8.00 a.m. on 11 March 2004.

Adonis Pouroulis, Chairman and Chief Executive of Petra, commented: 'We are very
pleased to have successfully completed this fund raising, which follows on from
the recent announcement of our strategic alliance with BHP Billiton. The
majority of the proceeds of the placing will be directed at the fast-track
exploration and development of the Alto Cuilo diamond project in Angola. Work is
about to commence there on extensive core drilling, with bulk sampling to begin
in the next few months, the aim of which is to determine a volume and grade
estimation of pre-selected kimberlite and alluvial deposits. The Board is very
excited about prospects for the Alto Cuilo concession and we look forward to
working with our Angolan partners in taking our work programme forward.'

For further information, please contact:

Adonis Pouroulis - CEO
Petra Diamonds
Tel: [phone]

Joe Nally / Michael Shaw
Williams de Broe Plc
Tel: [phone]

Justine Howarth / Cathy Malins
Parkgreen Communications
Tel: [phone]




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