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RAPAPORT... Firestone Diamonds' revenue rose 87.5 percent year on year to $15.9 million (GBP 9.9 million) in the fiscal year that ended on June 30. The mining company's source of revenue came from the sale of 166,712 carats out of the Liqhobong diamond project in Lesotho at an average price of $93 per carat. Firestone narrowed its fiscal loss nearly 52 percent to $23.3 million (GBP 14.5 million).
The company noted that the diamond prices obtained during the period reflected robust demand even without any special or large stones being sold during the final nine months of the fiscal year. Nonetheless, higher average prices per carat indicated the presence of smaller, higher-quality white diamonds from the mine. Rough diamond prices recovered well from their lows recorded in the first half of 2012 and remained consistent within the $85 to $100 per carat range, according to the company.
Diamond production at Liqhobong's pilot plant dropped 5 percent to 156,131 carats during the fiscal year. The company intends to close the pilot plant during the fourth quarter of 2013 and decommission it in the first half of 2014 in order to make way for the construction of a 500-tonne-per-hour main treatment plant.
Liqhobong has an estimated resource of 29 million carats at an average grade of 33 carats per hundred tonnes. Diamonds from the mine have an estimated average value of $100 per carat, valuing the mine at approximately $2.9 billion.
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