Petra Diamonds Ltd saw revenues fall by 10% and net profit decline by 12% during the financial year ended June 30, 2015 (FY 2015), the company said in a release. While revenue fell to US$425.0 million (FY 2014: US$471.8 million), net profit stood at US$59.6 million (FY 2014: US$67.5 million).

The company said that its performance had been “negatively impacted” by the fact that underground production was currently dependent on “mature, diluted mining areas”, as well as by the “weaker diamond market”. Petra said that the extent of the impact was partially offset by weakening of the Rand during the year.

Despite the relatively weaker economic performance, Petra announced its maiden dividend – a sum of 3.0 US$ cents per share for FY 2015.

On the Operations and Production front, the Company report was more positive. Production up 2% to 3.2 Mcts (FY 2014: 3.1 Mcts), in line with Company guidance, while operating costs remained well controlled. Petra also undertook Capex of US$274.1 million (FY 2014: US$211.2 million), in accordance with the roll-out of the Group’s expansion programmes.

It also stated that Gross Diamond Resources (inclusive of Reserves) increased 2.5% to 308.7 Mcts (30 June 2014: 301.1 Mcts).

The company said it expected FY 2016 production of 3.3 – 3.4 Mcts, an increase of 3 – 6% on FY 2015 production, and confirmed that undiluted ore from the new mining areas will start to contribute meaningfully to the Group’s production profile from H2 FY 2016 onwards. It reiterated that it remains on track to reach longer-term target of about 5 Mcts by FY 2019.

Johan Dippenaar, CEO, said, “FY 2015 was a challenging period. However, the Group still recorded a number of important achievements, such as increased tonnage throughput for the Year, the continued delivery of our mine expansion projects, etc. While market conditions remain subdued in the short term, Petra is in a robust position as we start to access the new, undiluted mining areas at Finsch and Cullinan from FY 2016 onwards.”

Petra’s first tender of FY 2016 will be held in early October.