Revenue Drops at Firestone's Liqhobong Mine

(IDEX Online) - Firestone reported Q4 revenue of $12.6m from its Liqhobong mine, in Lesotho, down almost 40 per cent on the previous quarter.

Operations as the mine resumed in October 2022 after a two-and-a-half year closure, so there is no comparable Q4 figure for last year.

The London-based miner said in its quarterly update that it sold 125,556 carats in Q4, down 35 per cent on Q3, and that it saw a slight fall in the average per-carat value, from $107 to $101.

It recovered 169,512 carats during the quarter, down almost seven per cent on Q3.

Firestone owns 75 per cent of Liqhobong (pictured), and the Lesotho government owns the remaining 25 per cent.

The mine was closed at the start of the Covid pandemic in response to a lockdown imposed by South Africa, which surrounds the landlocked kingdom.  

Firestone said at the time that it was in the best interest of all stakeholders to preserve the limited mine life of the mine, which opened in 2017, as well as the company's limited cash resources, for as long as possible until the market recovered.