Namakwa Reports H1 Loss, Strategic Restructuring

(IDEX Online News) – Diamond miner Namakwa reported a growing net loss of $15.4 million for the first half of the fiscal year.

The loss includes discontinued operations. Excluding the discontinued operations, the loss stands at $12.5 million.

In late November, production started at Namakwa’s Kao mine in Botswana. A first tender of the Kao goods achieved $218 per carat. A second tender is scheduled for May.

The firm’s South African alluvial mining operations started to generate an income after restructuring costs and the Lesotho mining operations are in an early phase of production, according to the company.

Namakwa said it expects to become “net-cash generative” in the second half of 2012.

“The first half of the financial year has been about the successful execution of our stated strategy to restructure the Group’s platform to provide for a mining operation underpinned by sustainable commercial production from the Kao Mine,” said CEO Richard Collocott.