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Lucara’s Sales Lifted by Record 813ct. Diamond
Aug 7, 2016 10:10 AM
By Rapaport News
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RAPAPORT... Lucara Diamond
Corp.’s revenue and profit soared in the first half of the year due to a record
sale of a rough diamond for $63.1 million.
Revenue jumped to
$191.4 million in the six months that ended June 30 versus $67.8 million a year
earlier, the miner reported. The average selling price surged to $1,233 per
carat from $340 per carat, while net income more than quadrupled to
$63.3 million. The board declared a special cash dividend of
$0.353 (CAD 0.465) per share payable September 15 in addition to the regular
payout to investors.
The sales boost came
as an 813-carat rough stone, ‘The Constellation,’ fetched $63.1 million, or $77,649 per carat, in May, marking the highest price ever achieved for
a rough diamond. Lucara’s 1,109-carat ‘Lesedi La Rona’ diamond was
expected to sell for an even larger amount at a Sotheby’s auction in London in
June but all bids fell short of the reserve price.
Revenue was also
lifted by an exceptional stone tender in April where it sold 10 rough diamonds for $51.3 million or $33,632 per carat.
All revenues were from
diamonds mined at the company’s Karowe mine in Botswana, which is
known for producing large and high-value rough. Operational performance at the
mine in the first half was better than forecast, with the deposit yielding
340 “special” stones weighing more than 10.8 carats, including 12 diamonds that
were larger than 100 carats each. A project to discover even bigger
diamonds is “well advanced” and specialized
equipment is currently being made, with commissioning on track
for the end of the third quarter. Separately, a “Mega Diamond Recovery”
project is on schedule and currently in design stage.
Second-quarter
revenue, which included the sale of the Constellation diamond, catapulted to
$140.8 million from $38.1 million a year ago and net income increased more than
fivefold to $46.1 million. The average selling price surged to $1,824 per
carat versus $412 per carat a year before.
Full-year revenue is
expected to be $200 million to $220 million excluding the sale of the
Constellation. The miner is holding the ‘Lesedi La Rona’ in inventory and
considering options for its sale. Production guidance for 2016 is also
unchanged at more than 350,000 carats.
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Tags:
Botswana, Constellation, Exceptional Stones, Karowe mine, large diamonds, Lesedi La Rona, lucara, Lucara Diamond Corp., Rapaport News, Sotheby’s, The Constellation
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