{"id":1197590,"date":"2020-07-23T12:03:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T17:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1030671"},"modified":"2020-07-23T12:03:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-23T17:03:00","slug":"petra-diamonds-production-revenue-knocked-down-by-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1197590","title":{"rendered":"Petra Diamonds production, revenue knocked down by covid-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa\u2019s Petra Diamonds (LON:PDL), which put itself for sale in June, sold 23% fewer carats for 36% less revenue<\/a> in the year to June 30, as the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc<\/a> on an already struggling diamond industry.<\/p>\n

Petra, which has been hit by a triple whammy of weak market conditions, power emergencies<\/a> in the home country and the creeping covid-19, said on Thursday it only sold 2.9 million carats in its full-year 2020.<\/p>\n

The figure compares to the 3.7 million carats Petra sold in 2019, when most diamond miners were struggling to keep afloat amid poor prices.<\/p>\n

Revenue for the year fell to $295.8 million from $463.6 million last year.<\/p>\n

Lockdowns implemented in South Africa from March 26 severely disrupted production. Around the same time, the company saw its founder and chairman for 23 years, Adonis Pouroulis, step down<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Petra also placed its Williamson mine, in Tanzania, on care and maintenance.<\/p>\n

Financial crunch<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The company tried to turn around its fortunes after piling up debt<\/a> to expand its flagship Cullinan mine in South Africa. The renowned open-pit mine, where the world\u2019s largest-ever diamond was found in 1905<\/mark>, produces about a quarter of the world\u2019s gem-quality diamonds. It is also the source of the vast majority of blue stones.<\/p>\n

Petra failed in May to make an interest payment on a $650 million bond, but won some breathing space from creditors who said they would not declare a default until August.<\/p>\n

The diamond producer also cancelled May and June tenders because of travel restrictions and low demand from the midstream. It expects to hold its next tender in September.<\/p>\n

Petra said that talks with noteholders and south African lenders continued, adding it expected to update the market on the matter this quarter.<\/p>\n

Despite the numerous challenges, Petra is targeting a ramp-up to pre-covid-19 production levels. It added it will disclose production targets for 2021 once it reaches a \u201csustainable level of operational stability\u201d.<\/p>\n

As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in South Africa continues to surge, accounting for more than 50% of cases in Africa, Petra staff has been affected. <\/p>\n

The company said that 39 workers have tested positive at its South African operations so far, and one worker has died of the respiratory disease at its Cullinan mine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Full-year revenue fell by a third as the diamond miner sold 23% fewer carats for 36% less revenue in the year to June 30.<\/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\/1197590"}],"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=1197590"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1197774,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197590\/revisions\/1197774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1197590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1197590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1197590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}