Business
Trading Update for the Six Months ended 31 Dece...
Trading Update for the Six Months ended 31 Dece....
About this update from Petra Diamonds Limited
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \n \n \n \n 19 January 2021\n \n \n LSE: PDL\n \n \n \n Petra Diamonds Limited\n (\"Petra\" or the \"Company\" or the “Group”)\n Trading Update for the Six Months ended 31 December 2020\n Petra Diamonds Limited announces the following Trading Update (unaudited) for the six months ended 31 December 2020 (the “Period”, “H1 FY 2021” or “H1”), ahead of the publication of the Company’s Interim Results for the Period on 16 February 2021.\n SUMMARY\n \n Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (“LTIFR”) of 0.50 (H1 FY 2020: 0.22 and FY 2020: 0.29) improved from 0.65 during Q1 FY 2021 due to the behaviour-based intervention campaign in place to address this LTI trend and reinforce safe workplace practices. The total number of injuries during the Period, which includes LTIs, reduced to 19 (H1 FY 2020: 24).\n H1 production down 16% to 1,740,862 carats (H1 FY 2020: 2,070,240 carats), mainly as a result of the Williamson mine in Tanzania remaining on care and maintenance. Increased production at Cullinan was offset by decreased production at Finsch due to waste ingress in a number of the upper levels of the Block 5 Sub Level Cave, negatively impacting the recovered grade, and corrective measures to address the waste ingress restricting the volume of ROM tonnes being mined.\n H1 revenue down 8% to US$178.1 million from 1,712,797 carats sold (H1 FY 2020: US$193.9 million from 1,743,807 carats sold) with the US$40.4 million proceeds from the Letlapa Tala Collection of blue diamonds offset by weaker prices following the COVID-19 outbreak and the deferral of sales to January 2021 of some 382 kcts yielding US$30.5 million at the Company’s first tender of 2021, which closed on 15 January 2021. Diamond pricing on a like-for-like basis increased by a further 8% at this tender, confirming that pricing has now returned to pre-COVID-19 levels.\n The Cullinan mine produced a 299 carat Type IIa white gem-quality diamond in January 2021; this stone is expected to be sold during the Company’s next tender in February 2021. This is the third largest high quality white diamond recovered at the mine since Petra acquired its stake in 2008, after the 507 carat Cullinan Heritage and the 424 carat Legacy of the Cullinan Diamond Mine. A photo of the 299 carat diamond can be viewed at https://www.petradiamonds.com/media/image-library/diamonds/.\n Diamond inventory o...