KDL Closes Ellendale Mine; Places Subsidiary in Voluntary Administration
July 02, 15
(IDEX Online News) – Further to speculation in the media over the future of the Ellendale Diamond Mine, Kimberley Diamonds Ltd (KDL) has announced that it has been forced to suspend operations at the mine and place its subsidiary, Kimberley Diamond Company Pty Ltd (KDC), the holder of the Ellendale mining license, into voluntary administration.
The company said that while KDC had seen strong processing results at Ellendale in recent months and had initiated a number of successful cost cutting initiatives, KDC revenues have been negatively impacted by lower recovered grades and lower size distributions and, as a result, lower prices have been realized.
In particular, the company said that the prices achieved at the auction held last week in Antwerp were significantly lower than forecast, resulting from a sharp, unexpected decline in the rough diamond market.
The voluntary administration does not apply to KDL or its other subsidiaries which hold the interests in the Lerala Diamond Mine in Botswana or the Lomero-Poyatos project in Spain.