Petra Diamonds Sell 74.7 Carat Diamond
Petra Diamonds Limited have announced the sale of a 74.7 carat diamond for US$1,012,636 (US$13,556 per carat). This is the first ever sale of a diamond for over one million US dollars.
This was at a recent second sale of diamonds from the Koffiefontein mine in South Africa in which over 4.8 million dollars was realized from the sales of 11.548 carats of diamonds..
Average value for the tender was 420 dollars per carat. There was also a 60.25 carat diamond sold for 736,000 dollars.
According to Petra Diamonds Limited,
“These average values are in line with those achieved in the first tender and therefore Petra management has now increased its longer term expectations for the value of underground production from the Koffiefontein mine
Adonis Pouroulis, Chairman of Petra, commented; ‘Koffiefontein is renowned for the exceptional quality and value of its diamonds and, based on the consistently high average values per carat achieved at the two recent tenders, Petra has substantially upgraded its management revenue expectations for the mine. The acquisition of Koffiefontein introduced a major diamond mine to the Petra portfolio of producing assets, further consolidating Petra’s position as AIM’s leading diamond mining and exploration group.’
The Koffiefontein mine is in South Africa and was recently acquired by Petra from De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited (’De Beers’). The average sales value achieved at the first tender of Koffiefontein production (announced 7 August 2007) was U$367 per carat (excluding an exceptional 60.25 stone sold for US$736,000) and the prices received from the second tender, at US$334 per carat (excluding the 74.7 carat exceptional stone), are in line with those achieved on the first tender.
Based on these sale prices achieved, Petra management has significantly increased its revenue projections for the mine. Managements approach is not to include exceptional stones in revenue planning, hence stones such as the 74.7 carat sold for US$1,012,636 and the 60.25 carat stone sold for US$736,000 only add to these revenue expectations.
Petra has now sold a total of 28,246 carats from both Koffiefontein tenders for US$11.7m. The 135.6 carat stone that was recovered in August (as announced 17 August 2007) will be sold at the next tender, to be held in October.
Petra’s net interest in Koffiefontein is 70%, with its BEE partners holding the remaining 30%”
Petra seems set to produce some high value diamonds over the coming years.