African Diamonds is planning to tap into the African investment market by taking a secondary listing on the Botswana Stock Exchange.

The exploration firm, which is already listed on London's Alternative Investment Market, said yesterday that it expected to see its shares admitted to exchange on or around February 17th.

African Diamonds chairman Dr John Teeling said Botswana, as the world's largest diamond producer and one of Africa's richest countries, had a "knowledgeable" investment community.

He said African Diamonds would probably raise up to €2 million this year and predicted that investors in Botswana would participate in the financing.

African Diamonds holds three prospecting licences in Botswana and has reported the discovery of a small number of diamonds at one project in the country.

The firm is due to initiate a joint venture with a larger diamond exploration company so that its Botswana holdings can be further investigated, with a trial mining programme also likely to begin soon.

Dr Teeling said yesterday that African Diamonds had been invited to list in Botswana by institutions holding investment mandates for the country's pension fund.

These institutions would, according to Dr Teeling, be more likely to invest in African Diamonds if it became less of a pure exploration play and more of a mining company.

Shares in African Diamonds jumped by 17.5 per cent to 37p (54 cents) in London yesterday.