Firestone sold 194206 carats in first sale
Firestone Diamonds, a new diamond producer with operations focused in Lesotho, provides its quarterly update on operations at its Liqhobong Diamond Mine for Q1 of the Company's 2019 financial year. According to the summary, first lost time injury recorded in the quarter after 6.7 million hours worked LTI-free since July 2014, with the employee returning to work three days later.
About 240,733 carats recovered with cost per tonne treated of US$10.05 substantially lower than FY19 guidance of US$15-16 per tonne treated. In the Q1, a total of 194,206 carats sold in first sale of the financial year while that was 261,985 carats in Q4, FY18, realising revenue of US$13.5 million in Q1 2019 was lower than Q4, FY18 had earned US$18.6 million.
Average value of US$70 per carat recovered from sale remained lower that Q4, FY18 was of US$71 per carat. Overall the quarter performed below expectation mainly due to deterioration in prices received for the smaller, lower value run of mine.
In a post Quarter events, total of 102,835 carats sold realising total proceeds of US$8.2 million , in the second sale of FY19 on 26 October & average value realised of US$79 per carat, despite continued pressure on the ROM stones.
A number of special stones were sold including a 68 carat white diamond, the third most valuable stone sold to date for just under US$1.0 million, and a 20 carat fancy yellow diamond and recovery of a 326 carat near-gem diamond, the largest stone recovered to date at Liqhobong.
Paul Bosma, Chief Executive Officer, commented: "The first quarter was a good start to our financial year and it is pleasing that the positive operational momentum from the previous quarter was maintained. We held one sale during the quarter which was impacted by lower average values realised for the smaller, lower quality ROM stones.
However, from a total revenue perspective, the impact was partly offset by higher sales volumes. We completed our second sale of the financial year post the quarter end, and pleasingly, the strong demand for our special stones offset the continued pricing pressure on the ROM stones, resulting in an improved average value realised of US$79 per carat.
During October we also recovered our largest stone to date, a 326 carat near-gem diamond which provides further evidence of Liqhobong's large stone potential and importantly, the ability of the treatment plant to recover larger stones intact."
