Rockwell Diamonds’ Sales Go Down

Johannesburg: Rockwell Diamonds reported revenue dived 51 percent to $2.7 million (CAD 3.5 million) in the third fiscal quarter as litigation forced the company to suspend operations at its Wouterspan mine in South Africa.

Rough diamond sales plummeted 65 percent to $1.8 million (CAD 2.4 million) in the three months that ended November 30, the miner said. This came even as the average selling price increased 3 percent to $1,368 per carat. The company narrowed its net loss by 41 percent to $4.2 million (CAD 5.5 million).

Development of Wouterspan was suspended temporarily due to a dispute with a former contractor at the mine, Rockwell said.

“Rockwell completed a challenging quarter which commenced with a review of the practices, strategy and business plans and ended with new financing to complete Wouterspan, while having to attend to a series of unfounded and malicious legal attacks from its erstwhile mining and construction contractor,” said Tjaart Willemse, Rockwell’s chief executive officer.

Since the legal victory, Rockwell is again in “full control” of its business, with construction of the Wouterspan wet plant scheduled to finish in March, Willemse added.

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