Rockwell Reports Soaring Revenues From Diamond Sales in Fiscal Q4
April 01, 14
 James Campbell. |
Total carat sales for the quarter were up 81 percent to 9,596 carats, sold at an average price of $1,264 per carat, which is down 7 percent from a year ago.
The average stone size increased by 139 percent to 4.6 carats from 2.0 carats in the prior year.
The firm posted a 39-percent increase in carat production from its three mines that are now in production in South Africa.
Diamond sales revenues from own internal operations, excluding royalty mining, increased by 34 percent to $8.5 million, and total carat sales increased by 81 percent.
CEO and President James Campbell said: “Rockwell’s fourth quarter performance shows progress on a number of fronts with the results all pointing in the right direction and in line with our strategy to focus on the Middle Orange River (MOR). MOR volumes of gravel processed are up 60 percent from a year ago on the back of additional throughput from new capacity and this is in spite of abnormally heavy rainfall as well as service delivery protests that were managed in partnership with local leaders and regional authorities to minimize the impact on our workers and our operations.
"This delivered a 39-percent increase in carat production with the value per carat up 14 percent. We now have three mines in production in the MOR, all of which have multiple mining faces. This has provided us with benefits from production diversification as well as mining flexibility. During the quarter we continued to focus on the fleet optimization program to renew our aging fleet, cost effectively. We are currently reviewing the various financing options that have been presented to the company and have started the implementation phase.
"The consistency of results from the royalty mining contractor agreements at Tirisano is now enabling the company to take a measured approach to assessing the future options of some of its remaining non-core assets. Our objective remains to continue our drive to grow our own mining and processing capacity to 500 000m3 per month of quality cubes and increase the recovery of large diamonds.”