TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – US miner Brazil Minerals (BMIX) this week announced that it had built its own diamond cutting and polishing facility in Brazil, through which it hoped to leverage increased revenues.

Subsidiary Mineração Duas Barras (Duas Barras) mines diamonds and gold from its mining concession in Brazil and owns the largest alluvial processing plant for diamonds and gold in Latin America.

As polished diamonds sell for ten times or more, on a per-carat basis, than rough diamonds, BMIX believed that this facility would “substantially increase” its revenues over time.

BMIX’s diamond cutting and polishing facility would initially be staffed by a master cutter and polisher, with more than 20 years of experience, and his assistant, as well as support personnel.

BMIX in 2013 obtained the necessary licences from the Brazilian federal authority to be able to export polished or rough diamonds mined from Duas Barras. BMIX had since sold its own polished diamonds to a multistore jewellery chain in Brazil, which had been in business since 1944, as well as to private investors abroad.

BMIX said its strategy was to transform Duas Barras into a vertically integrated miner of rough diamonds and gold and a producer of polished diamonds.

Last year, during its first year of operations with Duas Barras, BMIX had revenues of $791 780, of which 69% was from rough diamond sales and 31% from gold sales. In 2014, BMIX had already sold $1.025-million in polished diamonds for forward delivery.

“This facility [for the production of] polished diamonds, from a small part of the total production, is another step in making Duas Barras an integrated operation. Over time, for part of the production, we will go from rocks to online retail, while keeping the entire diamond profit margin for ourselves. It is a goal with many steps, but we are advancing daily,” BMIX chairperson and CEO Marc Fogassa said.

The company is listed on the OTCQB, an early stage venture marketplace for companies that report to the US Securities Exchange Commission.