In a letter to its clients, Petra Diamonds has announced it is postponing its August viewing and sale of South African production in Johannesburg until further notice, to avoid unnecessary supply of rough to the market, which has been suffering from weak demand for several months now.
Petra Diamonds’ sales rose 13% for the full fiscal year, Sales volume grew 36% to 3.2 million carats.
The company attributes a portion of the rise to the completion of a ramp-up to steady processing at its Williamson mine. Petra also had extra rough during the period it had held back from sales at the end of the previous year when prices were low due to lackluster rough demand.
Picture Credit: Petra Diamonds
Petra Diamonds, the diamond mining company with mines in South Africa and Tanzania, has signed a long-term power purchasing agreement with Etana Energy, South African energy supplier, to provide its South African operations at Cullinan and Finsch with renewable energy from Etana's existing and future wind and solar projects. Etana will supply between 36% and 72% of the estimated energy requirements starting from financial year 2026 onward, aimed at reducing Petra's GHG emissions well ahead of the 2030 target.
Petra Diamonds recently made headlines with the sale of an exceptional US$8.2 million blue diamond, propelling its fifth tender of FY 2024 to new heights. Despite selling fewer carats, Petra achieved higher prices, with an average of US$136 per carat on sales of 362,000 carats, totaling US$49 million.
Petra Diamonds announced last week that Taifa Mining and Civils Limited, will be buying 50 per cent less one share of the Petra’s shareholding in Williamson Diamonds Limited (WDL). Tiafa Mining has been serving as the long-term technical services contractor at the Williamson Mine for over 20 years in coordination with Petra but have now stepped up their role as an equity stakeholder in the project.
Petra announces the results of Tender 4 of FY 2023, at which 505,398 carats were sold for a total of US$72.1 million from Petra’s South African operations.
This cycle includes a US$7 million Exceptional Stone2 from the Cullinan Mine and US$4.3 million of Finsch diamonds sold during H1 FY 2023, both of which were reported in our Interim Results announcement during February 2023. No sales for Williamson were recorded in this cycle given the operations at the mine are still suspended.
(PETRA PRESS RELEASE): Petra Diamonds Limited announces its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2022.
Richard Duffy, Chief Executive Officer at Petra Diamonds commented:
According to Reuters, Petra Diamonds invited merger and acquisition proposals on Monday, with CEO Richard Duffy saying the industry would benefit from consolidation.
"We have got opportunities to grow organically but given that we are through this restructuring and we have a much more robust balance sheet, we would be willing to consider consolidation if it makes value sense," Duffy told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Investing in African Mining Indaba in Cape Town.
The Bank of Tanzania announced that the country’s diamond exports increased significantly to $63.1 million (USD) in value by November 2022. This is more than seven times of the $8.4 million export value that was recorded in the year-over year analysis since November 2021.
Petra announces the results of Tender 3 of FY 2023, at which 305,366 carats were sold for a total of US$42.3 million across Petra’s mining operations.
“Petra’s third tender for FY 2023 saw a 2.2% increase in like-for-like prices on Tender 2 FY 2023, reversing the downward trend observed in the previous two tenders. Although it is still too early to speculate on whether rough diamond prices have bottomed out, we are very satisfied with the overall result, “said Richard Duffy, CEO of Petra.
Petra Diamonds Ltd on Thursday said it increased its diamond sales in the second tender for the financial year, but the average price per carat fell. The diamond mining company with operations in South Africa and Tanzania said its diamond sales in its second tender that ended November was GBP61.3 million, trebling from USD21.5 million during its second tender in October 2021 of its financial year 2022 that ended June 30.
UPDATE ON WILLIAMSON TSF DAM BREACH: (announced by Petra Diamonds November, 30, 2022)
Impact on the environment and local community
Petra Diamonds announced the results of their Tender cycle 5 of fiscal year 2022. They sold 635,806 carats for a total of US$86.1 million. Prices decreased by 23.7% compared to Tender 4 (March 2022) but were up 3.2% on Tender 3 (December 2021).
The tender included a 13.74 ct blue Exceptional Stone for the Cullinan mine. The stone was sold into a partnership with Stargems for US$ 5.7 million, with Petra retaining a 50% interest in the profits.
Today the step-cut fancy-vivid blue diamond weighing 15.10 carats sold for (450.9 million HKD) US$57.47 million, or over US$3.8 million per carat, at Sotheby's Hong Kong auction.
According to Richard Duffy, CEO of mining company Petra Diamonds, the long-predicted supply squeeze is being reflected over all diamond categories. This would mark a structural change in the diamond market, with increasing prices creating a robust and supportive market.
Duffy points out the current strong demand pull into an inventory pipeline where inventories are largely depleted. With a very low ability of suppliers to provide inventory, this will result in higher demand than supply and thus increase prices over the entire value chain.
Miner Petra Diamonds, which sells its entire production via Antwerp, announced they will invest $289 million to extend the life of both the Cullinan and the Finch mine. Thanks to an investment of approximately $173 million in the Cullinan mine and $216 million in the Finch mine, the mines will be able to stay in business until 2031 and 2030 respectively. Expectations are this would yield an additional 30% in revenue. According to Petra, both mines have the potential to produce even longer.
Auction house Sotheby’s announced they will auction ‘The De Beers Cullinan Blue’ - one of the most valuable blue diamonds ever - in April.
Petra Diamonds’ H1 FY 2022 figures (July – December 2021) show the revenue of the diamond mining company went up 49% to $264.7 million compared to the same period last year. This strong result was particularly driven by the sale of Exceptional Stones totaling $77.9 million, but also supported by the strong diamond market with rough prices going up.
Exceptional Stones sales results: