De Beers upbeat on Botswana diamond pact after meeting new president
De Beers' CEO said he expected negotiations on a new diamond sales pact with Botswana's government to be wrapped up within weeks.
BlueRock Diamonds (LON: BRD) shares jumped more than 16% on Monday after the miner announced it had found a 58.6-carat diamond at its Kareevlei mine, in Kimberley, South Africa.
The “D” colour makeable stone with some spotted black sulphide intrusions is the largest diamond found to date at Kareevlei.
“The final value [is] dependent upon the buyer’s confidence of what cut stones can be recovered,” executive chairman Mike Houston said in the statement.
The discovery comes only a week after Bluerock recovered a 21.6-carat diamond from the same mine.
BlueRock expects the diamond’s sale value to be “significant” due to it being a ‘D’ colour “makeable stone”
“This is a very important discovery for BlueRock as it supports the ‘size frequency distribution charts’ that indicate our pipes will deliver large high value diamonds,” Houston added.
The executive also noted that the “run of mine” parcel of diamonds recovered this year have secured values of over $400 per carat.
The two diamonds will be sold at the end of the month, BlueRock said.
Shares in BlueRock climbed to £47.22 in early morning London trading on the announcement and were still up 10.6% at £44.8 by 2:30pm GMT, leaving the miner with a market capitalization of £5.72 million (about $7.9m).
The company, which updates the market when it recovers stones valued at over $50,000, fetched $163,000 in January for a 14.8 carat diamond.
