Aim-listed diamond miner Firestone Diamonds achieved an ‘exceptional’ operational performance at its 75%-owned Liqhobong mine, in Lesotho, during the fourth quarter ended June 30.
Recoveries for the quarter increased by 36.8% to 263 512 ct, resulting in the production of 835 832 ct for the full financial year, in line with guidance of between 800 000 ct and 850 000 ct.
Firestone reported a grade of 25.7 carats per hundred tonnes (cpht) for the fourth quarter, compared with 22.2 cpht in the third quarter.
Tonnes treated were 18% higher quarter-on-quarter, at 1.02-million tonnes, resulting in a full-year total of 3.8-million tonnes – ahead of the 3.6-million-tonne guidance.
A total of 261 985 ct were sold in the quarter, realising revenue of $18.6-million, compared with the 217 380 ct sold in the third quarter for $17.6-million in revenue.
Firestone CEO Paul Bosma said the fourth quarter saw record production, owing to the company being able to access high-grade blocks in the mine plan and also as a result of a good operational performance.
“As always, the average dollar per carat achieved is highly sensitive to the incidence of special stones, of which we saw a lower incidence in this particular quarter. However, we continue to have grounds for optimism given the parts of the orebody we plan to exploit over the next 12 months.
“We recently completed a structural and geotechnical assessment of the pit and the outputs are now being used to rerun our life-of-mine plan,” he noted.