Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
Junior miner Firestone Diamonds announced today it has found three large diamonds at its Liqhobong mine in Lesotho and that first quarter production at the location was looking up.
The diamonds recovery includes a 74-carat light yellow unbroken gem, a 39-carat light yellow gem and a 26-carat white gem, both fragments of much larger stones.
These diamonds will be sold at tender in the second quarter, said CEO Tim Wilkes in a statement.
The company noted that while prices for better-quality diamonds are strengthening and in some categories the prices have crept up to levels not seen since June 2011, the prices of brown diamonds, near-gem quality and small stones remains depressed and under pressure.
Firestone Diamonds also appointed South African based chartered accountant Grant Ferriman as its chief financial officer as of July 1, 2012. Ferriman is currently group financial controller of Mwana Africa Plc. His appointment follows the resignation of Angus Ogilvie as finance director during April 2012.
Image: A copy of the unmounted Tiffany diamond, one of the largest yellow rocks ever discovered, by Chris 73 / Wikimedia Commons
Comments
Dan Oancea
Followed these Lesotho diamond mines for a while. They produce highly valued very large diamonds but it is a real challenge to make mining economic as they are extremely low grade – in other words they mostly lack a large population of smaller diamonds that would make their life easier by regularly putting cash on the table. For most of the time they hold their breath waiting to see if a larger stone comes out so they’d be able to pay their bills – see their famous neighbor the Letseng mine that was/is plagued by the same geological constrains. See that some of Liqhobong’s big fancy stones that they’ve recovered are fragments of larger stones and here comes another challenge as they would have to implement a new crushing system at their processing plant that would maximize the recovery of unbroken larger stones. Otherwise very interesting diamond mines.