Firestone Diamonds has announced its diamond production and sales for the first quarter of its 2019 financial year (ended September 2018), reporting the recovery of 240,733 carats from its Liqhobong mine in Lesotho, a drop compared to the 263,512 carats recovered in the fourth quarter of the 2018 financial year (ended June 30).
Diamond sales fell to 194,206 carats, raking in $13.5 million; this, compared with the 261,985 carats which brought the miner $18.6 million in the previous quarter. The miner achieved $70 per carat, saying it was “below expectation, mainly owing to a deterioration in prices received for the smaller, lower-value run-of-mine (RoM) stones”.
Firestone CEO Paul Bosma commented: “The quarter was a good start to our financial year and a positive operational momentum from the prior quarter was maintained. The strong demand for our special stones offset the continued pricing pressure on the RoM stones”.
