Gem Diamonds Raises Full-Year Forecast

RAPAPORT... Gem Diamonds has increased its production and sales outlook forthe year after robust output during the third quarter, it said Wednesday. The miner now expects to recover 120,000 to 124,000 caratsfrom its Let??eng mine in Lesotho for the whole of 2018, compared with a forecast of 114,000to 118,000 carats it provided in March. It also anticipates selling 118,000 to122,000 carats, up from 112,000 to 116,000 carats. The changes followed improvements in mining efficiencies andgrades during the quarter ending September 30, it explained. Production grew16% year on year to 35,755 carats for the period, with the miner recovering twostones larger than 100 carats. Quarterly sales rose 16% to $55.7 million as a 17% jump insales volume to 30,275 carats outweighed a 1% decrease in the average price to$1,841 per carat. It sold eight diamonds for more than $1 million each, with a138.20-carat, type IIa rough fetching $60,428 per carat - the highest averageprice for a Let??eng diamond during the quarter. "The demand and prices for Let??eng's large, high-qualitywhite rough diamonds has remained firm," the company noted. The company will spend $3 million on a plant at Let??eng thatuses new technology to identify and extract diamonds within kimberlite ore, itadded. The facility - which will start operating in the second quarter of 2019- is part of a strategy to improve early detection of diamonds and reducebreakages. Image: Let??eng mine in Lesotho. (Gem Diamonds)