JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Petra Diamonds reported a 31% increase in production to 1.24-million carats for the six months ended December 31, 2012, largely owing to the inclusion of output from its recently acquired Finsch mine for the full six months.

Improved output was further bolstered by production start-up at Petra’s Williamson operation following the commissioning of the rebuilt plant, as well as the continuing ramp-up to full production at the Kimberley Underground operation.

“Production for the second half of the year is expected to show further growth, and our revised production target for the full 2013 financial year of 2.65-million carats is, therefore, expected to be 20% higher than that achieved in 2012,” said Petra CEO Johan Dippenaar.

The diamond miner’s longer-term production growth would be driven by the transition from the mature mining blocks to new mining areas, which would provide access to undiluted ore.

The increased production from the Finsch, Williamson and Kimberley Underground operations drove a 63% increase in revenue for the period to $151.7-million, while profit on mining activity was up 26% to $41.2-million, despite an 82% increase in overall mining and processing costs.

The company generated gross first-half revenue of $156.3-million on the sale of 1.06-million carats, while five stones exceeding $1-million each in value were sold, yielding $8-million in sales revenues.

The diamond explorer posted a net loss after tax of $15.2-million and a basic loss in earnings per share of $1.91 for the period, owing chiefly to the $17.8-million impairment of the Fissure mines.

Dippenaar asserted that, in the transitional period, Petra would continue to deliver higher production levels in 2013 and 2014 until the company’s expansion plans started to open up new mining areas in 2015.

“We will achieve this by developing new production areas which will provide additional ‘gapfiller’ tons, progressively ramping up production across all the operations and taking up to full capacity the major tailings operations at both Finsch and Cullinan,” he said.

Meanwhile, the company expected the market to maintain its firmer trend into the second half of the year, with demand being driven by the emergence of new consumers in developing markets.