Firestone Diamonds plc reported a loss of US$ 7.8 million during the six months ended December 31, 2017 (H1 2018), the first six months of commercial production at its Liqhobong mine in Lesotho, lower than the US$ 8.8 million loss during the same period a year earlier.

The Company said that it had recovered 379,716 carats in this period, including the largest diamond recovered at the site to date, a 134 carat gem-quality light yellow diamond. In the six months it had also treated 1.9 million tonnes of ore, slightly ahead of its target of 3.6 million tonne per annum.

While a total of 352,272 carats were sold during the four sales held in the six month period for total proceeds of US$26.0 million, the average price per sale has been rising. In the first two sales it stood at US$ 69 per carat, increasing to US$ 80 for the subsequent two sales, recording an average price per carat of US$ 74 in H1.

Subsequently, at its first sale of 2018 when all 114,887 carats on offer were sold at US$9.4 million, the average value realised was US$ 82 per carat.

Stuart Brown, Chief Executive Officer of Firestone, commented: "In our first six months of full scale production at Liqhobong, processing rates were above expectations, while costs continued to remain below our targeted levels. To address the lower than expected diamond values, we announced a revised mine plan at the end of the period, which is designed to maximise cash flow in the shorter term while we address diamond value recoveries.”

The strong retail season and the conservative sales volumes from all the major producers towards the end of 2017, has led to a very encouraging start to 2018 for the rough market, he added.