Petra Diamonds produced 1,053,817 carats of diamonds over July-September

Publié le mardi 24 octobre 2017, par Rutilance.com

Petra Diamonds Ltd,with five diamond mines in Africa, produced 1,053,817 carats of diamond from 1 July to 30 September 2017, the first quarter of fiscal year 2018.

The production over the considred period is down 4% compared with 1,097,523 carats achieved over the same period of the fiscal year 2017, the LSE listed company reported on Monday. The decrease is mainly due to a planned reduction in tailings production at the south-african mines, Finsch and Kimberley Ekapa Mining Joint Venture, while run of mine production increased 17% to 842,809 carats of diamonds.

Commenting on this, CEO Johan Dippenaar, said the Group ”has made a strong start to fiscal year 2018, delivering close to 1.1 million carats for firs quarter. The Group is continuing its production build up and it is encouraging to see the increasing contribution of run of mine production”.

Over the period, Petra Diamonds sold 711,277 carats of diamonds that yielded 78.7 million $ revenue, representing 17% decrease compared with 94.7 million $ achieved with the sale of 745,447 carats of diamonds in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2017. The achievement does not include sales from the 75% owned Williamson mine in Tanzania, as the government of Tanzania detained due parcel of diamonds from the asset.

The company has received authorisation from the governement of Tanzania to resume diamond exports and sales. Thus, a second parcel of about 40,000 carats fo diamonds from the Williamson mine has been shipped to the Company’s marketing office in Antwerp, in Belgium, to be sold in the second quarter of the fiscal year 2018.

Petra Diamonds is a leading independent diamond mining group and an increasingly important supplier of rough diamonds to the international market. It has interests in five producing operations : three underground mines in South Africa (Finsch, Cullinan and Koffiefontein), the Kimberley Ekapa Mining joint venture (including the Kimberley Underground mine and extensive tailings retreatment operations), and Williamson mine in Tanzania. It also maintains an exploration programme in Botswana. Petra has a core objective to steadily increase annual production to 5.0 - 5.3 million from financial year 2019 onwards. The Group has a significant resource base in excess of 300 million carats.