Lower prices of small rough continue to hamper junior miners like Firestone Diamonds.

Firestone Diamonds announced its interim results of its Liqhobong mine for the six months ended 31 December 2018. The company recovered 465, 680 carats, among which was the mine's largest diamond found to date, a 326-carat light yellow makeable stone.  The aerage value per carat realized was $71, somewhat lower than in the parallel period in 2018. The lower price per carat is the result of lower market prices for smaller, lower value diamonds;

The company reported a revenue of 27.4 million from three sales. Firestone recorded a loss of US$6.6 million for the period but a positive cash flow of US$6.7 million generated from operations.

Paul Bosma, Chief Executive Officer of Firestone, commented:

"The second half of 2018 saw a global price slump in the smaller, lower value goods which negatively impacted our average dollar per carat achieved. Since then, prices have stabilised at these lower levels and we are looking forward to some improvement once inventory levels in the midstream of the diamond market normalise. Production is on track to meet guidance and we once again did well to manage costs, which are well below full year guidance. Pleasingly, we sold our most valuable stone to date at the recent sale, a 70 carat makeable recovered in January, and aided by a modest price increase in the smaller fraction we realised our highest average sale price since declaring commercial production in mid-2017 of $90/ct."