Revenue at Lucapa Diamond Corp. slumped in the third quarter as the miner held back seven large stones to sell at a tender earlier this month.
Group sales slid 43% year on year to $14.6 million for the period, Lucapa reported last week. Sales volume dropped 24% to 15,493 carats, with production down 20% at 16,588 carats.
The slowdown reflected lower sales and output from the Lulo mine in Angola, where revenue plummeted 56% to $9.1 million.
The company postponed the sale of 2,300 carats to October, including seven “exceptional” stones weighing a combined 535 carats that fetched $15.7 million. All of the proceeds will count toward fourth-quarter revenue.
While the timing of sales impacted results, the October tender showed that “large, high-quality diamonds such as those produced at Lulo and Mothae are still attracting strong prices and are in high demand compared to the smaller goods used by mainstream jewelers,” said Lucapa managing director Nick Selby.
Production at Lulo dropped 42% to 7,578 carats because of lower grades, the company added. At the Mothae mine in Lesotho, sales increased 12% to $5.5 million, while production rose 19% to 9,010 carats.
