Lucapa Diamond Company saw a sharp drop in revenue during the fourth quarter as a lower proportion of large stones weighed on the average price.
Sales from the company’s mine slid 71% year on year to $10 million for the period, it reported Wednesday. The average price plummeted 80% to $1,251 per carat, outweighing a 42% jump in sales volume to 8,016 carats. The drop in per-carat price is largely due to a strong comparison base in the equivalent period a year ago, when the company sold two rough diamonds over 200 carats and two weighing more than 100 carats.
The company’s Lulo mine in Angola saw production grow 5% to 8,012 carats as mining focused on higher-grade ore floodplain areas. The number of special-sized diamonds — those over 10.8 carats — surged 43% to 77. However, the company will hold most of these stones in inventory and sell them in the first quarter of 2025.
“Production at Lulo continued to improve in the fourth quarter, following the completion of the second river diversion, leading to better grades and carat recoveries, however most of the larger, high-value stones recovered during the quarter will only be sold in the first quarter of 2025,” said CEO Alex Kidman. “With the next river diversion already being excavated, we look forward to further production improvements in 2025.”
The miner also advanced exploration at its Merlin diamond project in Australia, which is set to restart production in a two-phase plan that will begin during the first quarter of 2025. During phase one, the miner expects to recover 67,000 carats and forecasts revenue will come to AUD 42 million ($26.2 million), with an average price of $415 per carat. Phase two is expected to produce an additional 247,000 carats, yielding AUD 204 million ($127.1 million) at $545 per carat.
“The outstanding preliminary results [for the Merlin mine in Australia] highlighted two large base metals targets, leading us into an exciting period in early 2025,” Kidman added. “We look forward to announcing the final, more detailed results of the survey later this quarter.”
Image: The Lulo mine. (Lucapa Diamond Company)
