Rockwell Diamonds Swings To Profit In First Fiscal Quarter
July 13, 14
(IDEX Online) – Rockwell Diamonds Inc. posted a profit of $345,000 in the first quarter that ended on May 31 from a loss of $1.2 million a year before.
Revenue surged 67 percent on the year to $15.1 million, including $9.7 million in direct diamond sales and $5.4 million from sales to its beneficiation partners.
The miner reported that production soared 90 percent to 9,162 carats, with 4,800 carats derived from the company's royalty mining contractors. Its inventory at the end of the first quarter stood at 5,237 carats carried forward, including 2,271 carats on royalty mining contracts.
Rockwell Diamonds CEO James Campbell said, "We are pleased to report that Rockwell showed a bottom-line net profit of $345,000 in the first quarter. This is a first, as well as a significant achievement after three years of rebuilding Rockwell.
"These results also represent the eighth successive quarter of dollar-denominated revenue growth, highlighting the consistent delivery against our plan, which saw our exit from loss-making operations and the resolution of a number of corporate legacy issues."
Campbell reiterated the company's drive to produce higher-quality diamond, especially from its Middle Orange River project in South Africa. The average stone size produced from all properties increased 18 percent in the first quarter to 4.60 carats compared with 3.80 carats one year earlier.
"We recovered four rough diamonds in the plus-50-carat category, the largest of which was a 103.80-carat high-intensity fancy-yellow stone. In addition, Rockwell produced 81 rough diamonds in the plus-10-carat category, compared with 44 stones in the prior year.
"In June, 2014, we processed record volume of gravel across company properties as our three Middle Orange River mines all processed higher volume due to higher equipment availability," he added.