{"id":1145436,"date":"2019-10-23T11:01:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T16:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1005056"},"modified":"2019-10-23T11:01:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T16:01:00","slug":"firestone-diamonds-revenue-down-as-recovery-rates-sales-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1145436","title":{"rendered":"Firestone Diamonds revenue down as recovery rates, sales fall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-focused&nbsp;Firestone Diamonds&nbsp;(LON:FDI)&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/otp.investis.com\/clients\/uk\/firestone_diamonds_plc\/rns\/regulatory-story.aspx?cid=1527&amp;newsid=1338392\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">reported Wednesday<\/a> a fall in first-quarter revenue due mainly to a fall in recoveries at its Liqhobong mine in Lesotho, the company\u2019s only operating mine, and lower sale prices.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In three months through September, Petra\u2019s first quarter of its 2020 financial year, it recovered 201,091 carats, down from 208,572 carats in the final quarter of 2019.<\/p>\n<p>During the quarter, a single sale of 168,612 carats took place, generating revenue of $10.6 million, down from $12.7 million in the previous quarter. Average value was $63 per carat, down from $71. <\/p>\n<p>Operating costs, however, fell to $10.32 per tonne \u2014 below guidance \u2014 from $12.57 per tonne. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>Firestone expects to resume operations at Liqhobong&#8217;s treatment plant in early November.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Firestone is to review 2020 guidance, it said on Wednesday, following &#8220;unexpected&#8221; power cuts at Liqhobong, whose treatment plant may not be able to fully resume operations until early November.<\/p>\n<p>The miner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/firestone-meets-annual-production-targets-despite-market-weakness\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">had previously said<\/a> it expected diamond recoveries to be between 820,000 and 870,000 carats, with ore tonnes treated between 3.6 million and 3.8 million tonnes. <\/p>\n<p>Diamond miners are&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/web\/diamond-crisis-deepens-as-de-beers-reports-plunging-sales\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">struggling across the board<\/a>, especially those producing cheaper and smaller stones, where there is an over-supply.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Increasing demand for synthetic<br \/>\ndiamonds has also weighed on prices. Man-made diamonds require less investment<br \/>\nthan mining natural stones and can offer more attractive margins.<\/p>\n<p>Buyers, those that polish and cut<br \/>\ndiamonds for retailers, have been hit this year by lower prices and tighter<br \/>\ncredit, prompting them to delay purchases.<\/p>\n<p>Tiffany\u2019s reported in August<br \/>\na&nbsp;3% decline in like-for-like sales, while shares in Signet, the world\u2019s<br \/>\nlargest retailer of diamond jewellery, have lost more than 60% of their value<br \/>\nthis year.<\/p>\n<p>De Beers, &nbsp;the world\u2019s No.1 diamond miner by value, has responded by axing production \u2014 with a target of 31 million carats this year compared with 35.3 million in 2018. It has also given buyers more room to maneuver, by allowing them to&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/de-beers-steps-up-plans-to-boost-sales-to-let-buyers-reject-up-50-of-small-diamonds\/\" >refuse half the stones<\/a>&nbsp;in many of the diamond parcels.<\/p>\n<p>Firestone\u2019s chief executive, Paul Bosma, said he expected prices for smaller diamonds to increase towards the end of 2020, in part due to the closure of Rio Tinto\u2019s Argyle mine in Australia. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The company Firestone is to review 2020 guidance, following &#8220;unexpected&#8221; power cuts at its Liqhobong mine in Lesotho.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[949,369],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145436"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1145436"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1145455,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1145436\/revisions\/1145455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1145436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1145436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1145436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}