Petra Diamonds has announced that revenue jumped 48% for the first six months of its 2017 financial year.
In a trading update for the first half of its 2017 financial year ending 31 December 2016, the diamond mining firm reported a revenue increase to $228.5m (£183m) – up 48% from $154m (£124m) in the same period the previous year.
The number of diamonds sold rose 47% for the period to 1,910,113-carats, compared with 1,303,051 in the first half of its 2016 financial year.
Petra said, in line with past years, the second half of the year is expected to be a stronger sales period due to the timing of tenders being weighted towards the latter half of the company’s financial year.
Diamond production was also up 24% to 2,015,087-carats, from 1,629,403 the previous year. Petra said it remains on track to deliver its expected full-year production target of 4.4m to 4.6m carats.
Meanwhile, rough diamond prices were flat for the company during the period on a like-for-like basis in comparison with the second half of its 2016 financial year.
Johan Dippenaar, CEO, said: “Due to the increased contribution in H1 FY 2017 from undiluted ore, we have delivered strong operational results, reporting significant increases in production and revenue.”
