TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – South Africa-focused diamond producer Diamcor Mining has raised $1.9-million from three rough diamond tenders held during the fiscal first quarter ending June 30, the company reported Monday.

The Vancouver-headquartered company, which mines the Krone-Endora at Venetia mine, sold a total of 13 384.72 ct during the period, resulting in an average price of $142.40/ct. 

Diamcor is located in South Africa's Limpopo province directly next to De Beers’ Venetia diamond mine – the country’s largest diamond mine.

Diamcor's tender and sale of carats during the three-month period represented a 469% year-on-year increase when compared with the 2 856.24 ct tendered and sold in the same period a year earlier, while gross revenues were up 419% when compared with $455 227.66 reported for the same period in the previous year. 

Diamcor commented that the price per carat realised during the tenders was consistent with company expectations for the goods offered and reflected the price weakness in certain categories of rough diamonds.

Diamcor’s first tender of the quarter comprised 3 031.95 ct of rough diamonds in April, for gross proceeds of $386 992.89, resulting in an average price of $127.64/ct. During May, the company held its second tender for the period, comprising 4 789.18 ct of rough diamonds, for gross proceeds of $564 639.06, resulting in an average price of $117.90/ct. A further 646.56 ct of rough diamonds, which included 148.29 ct of higher-quality stones, were withdrawn from the second tender and included in the third tender in June. 

In the final tender for the quarter Diamcor sold a total of 5 563.59 ct of rough diamonds, for gross proceeds of $954 346.49, resulting in an average price of $171.53/ct.

The company advised that rough diamonds recovered after May 29 and until June 30 would be recorded as rough diamond inventory on-hand for the first fiscal quarter. Rough diamonds tendered and sold were recovered from processing material in the +1 mm to -26 mm size fractions, along with initial limited processing of material from various larger-size fractions up to 45 mm during the period. 

Diamcor had not yet declared commercial production at Krone-Endora at Venetia and recoveries were incidental to the ongoing commissioning and testing exercises performed at the project.

Diamcor’s TSX-V-listed stock had gained about 27% since the start of the year and on Monday changed hands at C$1.12 apiece.