Petra produces 1068140 carats in Q1

Petra Diamonds Limited announces unaudited result for the period for Q1 FY 2019. According to the highlights, Q1 production registered up 21% to 1,068,140 carats (Q1 FY 2018: 883,803 carats), mainly driven by a 25% increase in ROM production across the operations to 1,022,571 carats (Q1 FY 2018: 815,571 carats), offset by planned reductions in tailings recoveries at Finsch.

 

Q1 revenue up 22% to US$80.2 million from 626,541 carats sold (Q1 FY 2018: US$65.8 million from 586,571 carats sold). Diamond prices for Q1 on a like-for-like basis were down ca. 5% in comparison to FY 2018 due to the usual seasonal weakness, but partially offset by the improvement in product mix.

 

The new South African Mining Charter, which was published on 27 September 2018, has served to remove uncertainty and has addressed a number of concerns. During Q1, the South African Rand has continued to weaken against the US Dollar from ZAR13.73: US$1 at 30 June 2018 to ZAR14.14:US$1 at Period end, averaging ZAR14.07 for the Period.

 

Johan Dippenaar, Chief Executive of Petra Diamonds, commented: “The first quarter of FY 2019 shows solid operational delivery, underpinned by strong safety performance, with the ramp up of our expansion programmes leading to a healthy increase in ROM carat production, thereby supporting our expectation of free cash flow generation and subsequent debt reduction.”

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