DiamondCorp Sells Diamonds From Tailings For $43 P/C

The Lace diamond mine.

(IDEX Online News) – Southern African diamond exploration company DiamondCorp has completed the first sale of diamonds recovered from tailings re-treatment activities at the Lace diamond mine in the Free State province of South Africa.

The November diamond sale included the first diamonds sold to Tiffany & Co. subsidiary Laurelton Diamonds, Inc. under the Company's Offtake Agreement.

A total of 6,444 carats were sold for gross proceeds of $278,574, representing sales proceeds of $43 per carat.

The diamonds sold comprised 5,026.72 carats recovered prior to and during the commissioning of the Lace recovery plant, and 1,415.32 carats run of mine recovered after plant modifications were made to increase the bottom screen cut size in the plant.

The diamonds recovered after the modifications comprised a coarser stone size distribution and achieved a price of $63 per carat.

“Management considers this price to be a fair benchmark for the economics of the tailings retreatment operation in 2014,” the firm said. “Overall diamond market conditions are subdued and prices are soft in small size fractions. Nonetheless, management forecast that tailing retreatment operating costs can be reduced from 32 rand ($3.13) per tonne to 22 rand ($2.15) per tonne once three shifts are operating. As a result, the company is proceeding with a ramp up to a three-shift operation by the end of January 2014.”