TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Vancouver-based Diamcor Mining is preparing for its largest ever rough diamond tender, when about 6 800 ct recovered from its Krone-Endora at Venetia project, in South Africa, will be put up for sale.
The TSX-V-listed miner advised that the first tender of its fiscal third quarter, ending December 31, would comprise about 2 800 ct from material recovered and processed from early in October to the 25th of the month, along with about 4 000 ct of rough diamonds held in inventory as at September 30.
The tender would also offer certain higher-value rough diamonds that the company withdrew from the previous tender, namely eight individual 2 ct to 3 ct carat diamonds, as well as five "specials" ranging in size of 10.93 ct to 18.05 ct.
The company had not yet declared commercial production at Krone-Endora at Venetia, located directly next to De Beers’ Venetia diamond mine in the Limpopo province – the country’s largest precious gems mine – and recoveries were incidental to the ongoing commissioning and testing exercises performed at the project.
However, a decline in diamond prices because of lower growth in Chinese jewellery demand was dulling its appeal. Last month, Anglo American-controlled De Beers cut the prices of its rough diamonds by up to 10% and, this month, Russian State-controlled Alrosa followed suit, against a background of diamond manufacturers saying that they simply could not be expected to pay high prices for rough diamonds at a time of falling polished prices.
Diamcor's TSX-V-listed stock on Friday gained 6.06% to close at C$1.05 apiece, having lost 18.18% in value since the start of the year.